Claude Learning Series · Skills · fig. 04
PDF tools — the format everything arrives in.
Extract, merge, split, fill, and OCR — Claude handles the PDF chores that usually mean buying another subscription.
What it is
Everything important arrives as a PDF — invoices, contracts, statements, filings — and PDFs resist being worked with. This skill lets Claude pull tables out of them, combine and split them, fill forms, and make scanned documents searchable.
How to use it
- Built into Claude's paid plans — nothing to install.
- Attach the PDF(s) and say what you need.
- Claude returns the extracted data or the new PDF.
Use cases
uc/01Tables, freed
"Pull every line item from these twelve invoice PDFs into one spreadsheet with vendor, date, and amount columns."
uc/02The board packet
"Merge these six PDFs into one packet in this order, with a cover page and the financials last."
uc/03Forms, filled
"Fill this application form with our company details — here they are — and give me the completed PDF to review."
uc/04The scanned-archive rescue
"This is a scan of an old lease. Make it searchable, then tell me the renewal terms and any escalation clauses."
Good to know: If your team extracts data from the same kind of PDF every week, that's not a chore — that's a pipeline. It's exactly the pattern our custom document-extraction builds automate end to end.