Usage✓ Accepted

Claude's responses are too long and complicated with excessive formatting—any way to make them more concise?

Anonymous7/4/2026· Views 129

When I ask Claude something, the answers tend to be really long with excessive headings, bullet points, and bold formatting. Even for simple questions, Claude writes things out in markdown format that's way too long, which actually makes it harder to read. I keep having to add 'write more concisely' to every question, but is that really the best way? I'm wondering if there's a setting in regular chat (without a system prompt or anything) where I can change the default response format or length, or if it's better to solve this with a project feature.

Answers 1

You need to log in to write an answer.

✓ Accepted answer

첫째StaffLv.67/4/2026

Hi, this is the admin team. To sum up: there are three ways to avoid having to write 'write it concisely' every time, and the quickest solution is the Styles feature. 1. Change the default using the Styles feature Near the chat input box on claude.ai, there's a button to select your style. If you pick Concise, the entire conversation will get short, direct answers. Bullet points decrease and opening/closing summaries disappear. If the preset doesn't suit you, you can create a custom style. If you type in specific instructions like 'plain text without markdown formatting, answer in 3 sentences or less' and save it, that will automatically apply to all your future conversations. 2. Add formatting guidelines to Personal Preferences Go to Settings > General (or Profile) > 'Personal preferences to consider in responses' and type in the format you want. For example, if you save something like 'no markdown headers or bold, keep answers to two sentences for simple questions,' Claude will automatically reference this each time you start a new conversation. This works on all plans, including free. 3. Lock guidelines per task using the Projects feature If you have a specific task you repeat (like drafting work emails or code reviews), you can create a project and write formatting rules in the guidelines section. Those guidelines will stay in place for all conversations within that project, so you don't need to repeat instructions each time. Here's how to prioritize the three methods: 1. If you want to change things globally in regular chats, set up Concise or a custom style in Styles first. 2. For finer-grained behavioral rules (like banning certain words or capping response length), add them to Personal Preferences. 3. If you're doing the same kind of conversation repeatedly, create a project and manage the guidelines separately. Detailed explanations of each method can be found in the guides below. https://usingclaude.com/ko/guides/features/claude-styles-guide https://usingclaude.com/ko/guides/features/how-to-use-claude-projects