APCC Claude Instructions

Your complete, plain-English guide to setting up Claude — following today's AI Academy workshop for APCC

This guide is written for Claude specifically. If you're using Microsoft Copilot instead, most of the same principles apply — memory, structured prompts, dedicated project spaces — the menus just look different.

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1

Create Your Account

  1. 1.Go to claude.ai and click "Sign up"
  2. 2.Enter your email address (use your business email if possible)
  3. 3.Verify your email via the confirmation link sent to your inbox
  4. 4.Choose a password and complete your profile
  5. 5.Select the Claude plan that suits you — Free is fine to start, Pro unlocks more usage

Tip: Use the same email you use for your business Google/Microsoft account — it makes syncing files easier later.

2

Settings & Memory

  1. 1.Click your profile icon (bottom left) and open Settings
  2. 2.Under "Profile", add your name and a short description of your business — Claude uses this as context
  3. 3.Turn on "Memory" so Claude remembers details across conversations
  4. 4.Set your preferred tone and style under "Custom Instructions"
  5. 5.Review the Privacy settings and decide what Claude can and can't remember

Tip: Treat Custom Instructions like briefing a new team member — the more context you give, the better the results.

3

Set Up Projects

  1. 1.Click "Projects" in the left sidebar and select "New Project"
  2. 2.Name the project after a specific area of your business (e.g. "Customer Emails", "Marketing Content")
  3. 3.Add a Project description explaining what you want Claude to help with
  4. 4.Upload relevant documents or files into the Project's knowledge base
  5. 5.Start a new chat inside the Project so Claude has the right context every time

Tip: Create a separate Project for each distinct area of your business rather than one big generic chat.

4

Connectors & Artefacts

  1. 1.Open Settings > Connectors and browse the available integrations (Google Drive, Gmail, etc.)
  2. 2.Connect the tools you already use so Claude can reference live information
  3. 3.When Claude produces a document, spreadsheet or piece of code, look for the "Artefact" panel on the right
  4. 4.Use Artefacts to edit, refine and export content without cluttering the chat
  5. 5.Save useful Artefacts back to your Project's files for future reference

Tip: Artefacts are great for anything you'll want to edit again later — reports, templates, letters.

5

Prompting & Tokens

  1. 1.Be specific: tell Claude who you are, what you want, and what "good" looks like
  2. 2.Give examples of the tone or format you want copied
  3. 3.Break big tasks into smaller steps rather than asking for everything at once
  4. 4.Understand that longer conversations use more "tokens" — start a new chat if answers get slow or vague
  5. 5.Ask Claude to "ask you clarifying questions first" for complex tasks

Tip: If a response isn't right, don't start over — just tell Claude what to change.

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