While I still use ChatGPT and Google Gemini, I've found myself defaulting to Claude for the past few months. In this post I'll walk you through Claude's most impactful features and show you exactly how to leverage them for maximum effectiveness.
Whether you're new to Claude or looking to enhance your existing workflow, you'll learn how to optimize settings, use advanced features like Projects and Artifacts, create interactive dashboards, and perform sophisticated data analysis - all without any coding knowledge required.
Unlike ChatGPT, Claude's default output is already well-structured and concise, eliminating the need for extensive custom instructions. In the Settings > Profile section, you can leave Personal Preferences blank while focusing on enabling key features that enhance functionality.
Essential settings to enable include:
For most users, the LaTeX Rendering feature can remain disabled unless you specifically work with mathematical content.
Artifacts is one of Claude's standout features, providing a separate window for complex outputs like blog posts, code, and charts.
This separation allows you to:
Claude's screenshot functionality allows for seamless sharing of visual information from other windows or tabs. This feature particularly shines when combined with data visualization capabilities, enabling Claude to analyze and create visual representations of your data directly from screenshots.
While Claude offers various preset writing styles, the "Normal" style proves most effective for the majority of use cases. The custom style creation feature, while innovative, currently shows limitations in accurately mimicking specific tones or writing styles.
The Projects feature represents a significant advancement in managing AI interactions.
It allows for:
For example, in a product marketing context, you can maintain product documentation at the project level while using different chat threads for various communication channels (newsletters, blog posts, PR materials), ensuring consistent messaging across all outputs.
Claude excels at transforming complex documents into digestible interactive dashboards. By using the keyword "interactive" in your prompts, you can generate:
The system also supports iterative improvements, allowing you to refine the dashboard's appearance and functionality through simple natural language requests.
Claude's data analysis capabilities extend beyond basic charts to include:
When working with data visualization, including keywords like "visualize" or "visualization" in your prompts helps Claude understand your needs better.
To maximize Claude's effectiveness:
Check out my detailed guides on Perplexity and NotebookLM to further expand your AI toolkit and enhance your productivity.