Working with PowerPoint, the presentation tool of Microsoft’s office suite, is the most common. Both for student presentations and for companies, this software is one of the most complete and it is certain that on more than one occasion we have received a presentation or have had to do it in a language other than ours.
If this is your case, you will know that translating a slide is not as simple as other types of files, since these are not like text documents in which we can copy and paste the text to translate it in any online translator. However, this does not mean that we cannot translate a PowerPoint presentation, at all, since there are several tools with which we can do it easily, and also without having to pay for it. Let’s see them.
Directly from PowerPoint
The first tool that we are going to show you is a plug-in developed by Microsoft itself and that is specific to translate presentations made with PowerPoint. The add-in is included in PowerPoint and is without a doubt one of the best ways we have to translate slide texts into multiple languages quickly and easily.
To use it you must follow the following steps:
- Open your presentation or slide in PowerPoint.
- Then, at the top of the document, click “Start” right next to “File.”
- Now go to the slides ribbon and click on the “Translate” option.
- Right next to this option you will find another called “Language”. Expand its options and you will see that you can select the correction language.
- Now a translation menu will open in the right margin of the document.
- Select the text on the slide with the mouse to detect it. You can select it whole.
- You will see that in the upper part it automatically detects the source language and in the lower part it offers you the translation.
- Select the language you want the document to be translated into by clicking the arrow on the latter. For example, if the text is in English and you want it to be translated into Spanish, choose this language from the drop-down.
- If you wish, you can add the translation to the slide as subtitles by clicking on the “Insert” button.
Third-party tools to translate PowerPoint
Now that we have seen how we can translate the slides directly from PowerPoint, we are also going to propose some third-party tools with which you can also translate PowerPoint files in a very simple way.
Google translate
Although the Google translation tool does not always offer the most accurate translations (as they tend to be too literal and robotic) they can get us out of trouble if we want to know what a PowerPoint presentation says that we have received in an unknown language.
To do it:
- Access the Google Translate website.
- Now choose from which language to which language you are going to translate.
- Next, select the “Documents” option that you will find next to the “Text” option, just above the text boxes.
- An option will open that says Select a document .
- Click on the “Browse computer” button and select the PowerPoint file you want to translate on your computer.
- Next, click on the Translate button.
- A window will automatically open with the translation of the document.
Online DocTranslator
This site is completely free and we can translate PowerPoint files in both PPT and PPTX formats. It has support for a total of 109 languages , automatically detects the original language of the document and the best of all is that it returns it translated in the same format in which you have uploaded it.
To use it, you just have to access its website and on the home page, click on the “Translate now” button. A new window will open that says “Drag and drop your file here” or “Upload file.”
Choose the one that suits you best and select the PowerPoint file you want to translate on your computer. Once you have uploaded your file, select the language to which you want the translation to be applied and click “Translate”.
The tool will take a few minutes or seconds (depending on the size of the document) and when you have it, it will automatically download to your computer. If you click on the file, it will open in PowerPoint with the same format as the original, but with the translation language you have chosen.
DeepL
This is another website where we can directly translate a document in PPT or PPTX format online. DeepL’s site offers somewhat more limited language support than we’ve seen on Online DocTranslator, as it only translates into English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese.
However, using it is just as simple. Access your website from your computer’s browser and click on the option “Translate documents” which is next to “Translate text”.
You will see that a text box opens in which it asks you to drag a file into Word or PowerPoint or, on the contrary, to select it from the computer. Choose the option you prefer, select the file and choose the language you want it to be translated into.
As with the site we saw before, the DeepL page also returns the translated document in the same format in which you uploaded it and it is automatically downloaded to your computer. When you have it, you just have to click on it so that it runs in the Microsoft program.
DeftPDF
Finally, we have another very useful website for these and other tasks, since in addition to translating PPT and PPTX files, it is capable of translating DOCX, XLSX, ODT, ODS, ODP, PDF, SRT, and TXT.
Using it is as simple as entering your website and on the home page, click on the “Upload document” option. Select the file from your computer and then choose the language you want it to be translated into. A translated document will be generated that you can download to your computer or that you can simply read from the web.
