Claude's interface, web and desktop

By Gianluca Bonomo — Technology Trainer and Instructor

You open Claude for the first time and find a box and lots of buttons, with no instructions. Almost everything you need is already there, but you must know where to look.

In this guide you tour the whole interface, on the website and in the desktop app, and find the settings that really matter, starting with the privacy one.

1. What Claude is and where you open it

Claude is an AI assistant: you type or talk, it answers. Before learning the buttons, you need to know where to find them.

Claude reads what you type and the files you give it, thinks about the request and produces a text, an analysis, a document, code or a web page. No special commands are needed: just say what you want to get. The same account works everywhere: chats, projects and settings are the same on the web and in the app.

1.1 Two doors to the same Claude

The web version opens in any browser at claude.ai: no installation, ideal on a computer that is not yours. The desktop app is a program you install, with its own window, menus, keyboard shortcuts and access to the files on your computer.

2. The main screen and the sidebar

Fifteen elements to recognise at a glance: after this section you will know where everything is.

The figure numbers the elements of the desktop app. The web version is identical, without the Windows title bar, and with the app download button and the search lens at the bottom left.

2.1 The entries at the top

• New: opens an empty chat (Ctrl+N in the app).
• Projects: collections of chats, files and instructions on one topic.
• Artifacts: everything you created with Claude.
• Scheduled: tasks that run by themselves at set times.
• Customize: skills, connectors and plugins.
• More: hides the less-used entries; you also choose which ones to show here.

2.2 Managing chats

When you hover over a chat, the three dots appear: the menu lets you pin it, rename it, put it in a project, move it to a group or delete it. The letters on the right (P, R, D) are shortcuts while the menu is open. The two sliders next to the lens open filters and sorting.

2.3 Your account

At the bottom left, your name opens the account menu: Settings (Ctrl+comma in the app), Usage (how much of your limit you used), Language, Help, plan upgrade, app download and Sign out.

3. The writing box: attachments, models, effort and voice

Everything starts here: one box with a few buttons, each with a precise job.

Write the request the way you would say it out loud. To start a new line without sending, use Shift+Enter; to send, Enter. If you type a slash /, the list of installed skills opens (Claude's work «recipes»).

3.1 The + button

• Add files or photos (Ctrl+U): PDF, Word, Excel, images, text; you can also drag them into the window.
• Take a screenshot: captures part of your screen and attaches it.
• Add to project: moves files and request into a Project.
• Skills, Connectors, Design system, Plugins: call the features of Customize.
• Research and Web search: with the tick, Claude checks up-to-date sources on the Internet.

3.2 The model

The button with the model name (for example «Opus 5.5, Medium») opens the list. As of October 2026 you find Fable 5.1 (the hardest challenges, with usage credits on the Pro plan), Opus 5.5 (complex work and everyday tasks), Sonnet 5.5 (more efficient for simpler tasks) and Haiku 4.5 (the fastest). Below, More models holds the earlier versions.

3.3 Effort

The Effort entry says it clearly: more effort means deeper answers, but takes more time and uses your limits faster. The Max level uses five and a half times the normal amount or more.

3.4 Voice

The microphone on the right opens three options: Dictate (your voice becomes text, Ctrl+D in the app), Voice mode (a spoken conversation) and Microphone (which one to use). Voice language, style and speed are chosen in Settings.

4. Conversing, searching and working incognito

After the first message, the screen turns into the actual chat.

• Chat title: at the top, proposed by Claude after the first exchange; the small arrow opens actions on the conversation.
• Share: the icon at the top right creates a link; the links you made are managed in Settings, Privacy.
• Bar under the reply: copy the text, read it aloud, like or dislike (feedback), regenerate.
• Box at the bottom: to continue the dialogue; on the right you see the model and reasoning in use.

4.1 Search

The lens (or Ctrl+Shift+K in the app) opens a window that searches chats, Artifacts, projects, sessions and tasks. Under each title you see the snippet with the word found and the date. The Tab key switches from Search to Compose.

4.2 Incognito chats

The ghost icon at the top right (Ctrl+Shift+I in the app, where a separate window opens) starts a conversation that leaves no trace. The screen says so: it does not appear in history or search and it is not used to train Claude.

5. Projects, Artifacts and Scheduled tasks

Three sections for work that lasts more than one chat: gather the context, keep what you create, automate what you repeat.

5.1 Projects

A project is a smart folder: instructions, files and chats on one topic, all visible to Claude. You upload the documents once and every new chat already knows them. In the app, the Folder entry can also link a folder on your computer.

• Instructions: rules for all chats in the project (tone, format, role).
• Context: the uploaded files; a gauge shows how much capacity is used.
• Scheduled: recurring tasks tied to the project.
• Pin and Share: the pin locks it at the top, Share invites other people.

5.2 Artifact

When Claude creates something lasting (a document, a presentation, a site, a small app) it shows it in a separate window: the Artifact. The Artifact page gathers them all, with three starting points (Document, Presentation, Design) and the filters All, Yours, Shared with you. They are turned on in Settings, Features.

5.3 Scheduled tasks

Scheduled tasks run by themselves at the time you choose, even in the cloud: you can create them from your phone, but some need the computer to be on. Four starting templates: daily briefing (weekdays, eight o'clock), inbox triage, meeting prep, weekly recap (Friday, four in the afternoon).

6. Customize, Cowork and Claude Code

How to teach Claude the way you work, connect it to your apps and have it carry out whole tasks.

The Customize page has three tabs, Skills, Connectors and Plugins, and two levels: Yours (what you installed) and Discover (the catalogue). At the top right you find search, filters, sorting and Add.

6.1 Skills

A skill is a set of reusable instructions: how to do a certain kind of work. You call it with the / key. With Add you can upload one, write your own, have Claude write it or record your screen while you show the procedure.

6.2 Connectors

Connectors link Claude to outside services: Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, Notion, Slack, GitHub and thousands more. A tick means a connected service, the Connect button one still to connect.

6.3 Plugin

A plugin is a bundle of skills, connectors and commands for a trade: data, engineering, finance, design. Each card has Try (use it right away in a chat) and the + button to install it.

6.4 Cowork

With the Chat, Cowork switch under the box you no longer ask a question: you assign a task, which Claude completes using files, browser and applications. The Project, Manual (asks for confirmation step by step) and Output tabs guide the work. The feature is in Beta.

6.5 Claude Code

The button with the code symbol, next to the chat switch, opens Claude Code, the programming assistant. On the web it connects to GitHub: Claude works on a copy of the repository in a cloud environment and leaves you a pull request to review. In the app it works on the folders of your PC.

7. Desktop only: menus, shortcuts and windows

The app adds to the website a real program menu, the keyboard and multiple windows.

The three lines at the top left open five menus: File, Edit, View, Go and Help. Hovering over buttons shows their description with the shortcut.

• Command palette (Ctrl+K): a box to search for and run any command.
• Split view: puts two sessions side by side in the same window.
• Open in a new window: from the chat menu; incognito chats already open separately.
• Help: guide (F1), troubleshooting, support and update check.

8. Privacy: the setting that decides on training

If you work with client data, students or confidential documents, this is the first setting to check.

It opens with Ctrl+comma (or from your name menu, Settings) and is under Privacy. In the Preferences part there are two switches, in the Your data part a series of control buttons.

8.1 The other Privacy entries

• Location metadata: an approximate location (city or region) to improve the experience; turn it off if you do not need it.
• Export data: downloads a copy of all your chats and data.
• Shared chats and Shared artifacts: the public links you created, to be revoked here.
• Uploaded files and Your feedback: you see and manage them here.
• Memory preferences: leads to the Memory options.

9. The other Settings, one by one

The rest of Settings, in the order they appear in the left column.

At the top there is a Search box to find an option by name. Sections are in three blocks: Settings (General, Account, Privacy, Billing, Usage, Features, Memory, Design system, Reflection, Time and focus, Claude Code, Cowork, Claude in Chrome), This computer (desktop only: System, Extensions, Developer) and Customize.

9.1 Usage

It shows how much of your limit you used: the current session (with the reset time), the weekly limit, credits and usage split between Claude Code, Chat and Cowork. It is the page to check if you run out of messages too early.

9.2 Features and Memory

In Features two entries deserve a look: Code execution and file creation (needed for Claude to make Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents) and Allow outbound network traffic, which the page itself flags as a security risk: with confidential documents keep it limited to package managers. In Memory two switches decide whether Claude searches past chats and whether it generates memory from them.

10. Desktop only: Claude Code, Cowork and System

The most «powerful» sections of Settings: here a switch can give Claude more freedom. Read them calmly.

10.1 Claude Code

It controls code appearance, fonts and session display, the tokens of connected devices and the GitHub integration. The switch to know is Allow permission bypass mode: it makes Claude work without asking for permission and can cause data loss. Leave it off.

10.2 Cowork

Here you choose the devices that can run Cowork tasks, the folder where artifacts are saved and the trusted folders, where Claude works without asking each time. Only on this computer stops the task when you close the app. Add few folders, and only the ones you really want.

10.3 System

• Run at startup: Claude starts with Windows.
• Quick entry shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+Space) and dictation shortcut (Ctrl+D): both can be changed.
• Notification area: keeps Claude running even with the window closed.
• Keep the computer awake: prevents sleep so scheduled tasks can run.
• Computer use (Beta): gives Claude control of screen, mouse and keyboard in the apps you authorise. Denied apps lists programs it can never access.

10.4 Extensions and Developer

Extensions lets you install (even by dragging .MCPB or .DXT files) tools that make Claude interact with apps on your computer. Developer manages local MCP servers and points to Claude Platform for API keys, which need another account and are billed separately.

11. The settings to check right away

Eight checks that take less than five minutes.

Good use of Claude starts with two minutes in Settings.

— Gianluca Bonomo

A guided tour of the interface

Twenty minutes, with Claude open on the web or in the app: at the end you will move around without hunting for buttons.

1. Open Claude and, looking at the numbered figure, find the fifteen elements of the screen.
2. Start a chat with the request «Explain in three lines what a PDF file is», then rename it and pin it from the three-dot menu.
3. Change model and effort from the button at the bottom right and compare the speed of two answers.
4. Attach a file with the + button and ask for a summary in five points.
5. Search for the chat you just made with the lens, then open it and reread it.
6. Open an incognito chat, type a question, close the window and check that no trace remains.
7. Open Settings, Privacy, and check the training switch; decide whether to keep it on.
8. Write in Instructions for Claude the language and style you prefer.

Questions that come up in class

Glossary

Further reading

• Claude interface, web version and desktop app for Windows — observed and captured in September 2026
• Anthropic help and privacy pages — to consult for up-to-date terms on data use