Do you want to impress your colleagues, your boss, or your fellow students with your presentations? Then Microsoft PowerPoint is probably your first choice.
Thanks to this program, it's possible to breathe life into even the driest topics, ensuring that everyone in the room can follow your presentation. A particularly useful tool in PowerPoint is the integrated spell and grammar checker. This helps avoid embarrassing mistakes and should therefore always be enabled.
But what do you do if you need to present your work in a language other than the one set in PowerPoint? It's simple: you change the language with just a few clicks. We'll show you exactly how this works, how to switch a slide to English, and everything else you need to know about changing the language in PowerPoint.
Furthermore, we will explain when simple language changes reach their limits and when using an add-in spell check language switcher saves a lot of trouble and time.
Changing the language in PowerPoint – it's that easy!
Many people find PowerPoint very helpful, but at the same time, they also find it somewhat complicated. If you're one of them, we have great news: Changing the language is really done with just a few simple clicks and is no problem at all, even for computer novices.
We have prepared a step-by-step guide for you that will guarantee nothing can go wrong, and here it is:
Step 1:
First, you need to open Microsoft PowerPoint. You will now see the "File" tab in the top left corner of the document. Open it by clicking on it once with your mouse.
Step 2:
A small button will now appear, allowing you to select various options. At the bottom left of this list is the "Options" item. Activate this by clicking it once.
Step 3:
In the new window that now appears on your screen, you will see the "Language" tab, which you can also activate by clicking on it with your mouse. It is now important to keep track of everything, as you will see a long list of different functions.
These are the various language settings that can be changed. But what exactly do they mean?
Change language: The editing language
The term "editing language" refers to the language used in the document. Changing this selection ensures that your preferred vocabulary is recognized by the spell and grammar checker.
After making your selection, be sure to click "OK" to complete the process successfully. This is how you can easily change the spell checker to English, for example.
The display language
The display language determines how the entire PowerPoint menu is displayed. To change this, select your preferred option and then click "Set as default." Once you've done this, the entire PowerPoint interface will be displayed in that language.
The auxiliary language
The help language is the wording used in the help menus displayed on your screen. You can easily change this by selecting a new language from the list and confirming your choice with a click on "OK".
Congratulations! You have successfully completed the "Change language in PowerPoint" project. However, please remember that your newly selected language will remain active until you change it again. That's not all, though, because since PowerPoint is part of MS Office, you can adjust the language, but you can't restrict the change to a single program.
For example, if you then write a document in the Microsoft Word program, the language change will also apply here, which is why you will have to change it again if a different one is needed.
Changing the language in PowerPoint for all slides
Of course, you may have already created a presentation and want to change the language setting to check it. Or you may have received a document from someone written in a different language than the one currently selected in your Office programs.
In this case, is it necessary to redo the entire document or work through numerous slides, all underlined in red, because the spelling and grammar checker is operating in a different language? The good news is: no. You can simply adjust the language and apply the new language setting to the entire document. We've summarized exactly how to do this here.
Step 1.
First, open the PowerPoint program and then select the "View" tab. This is located at the top of the document, in the same row as "File" or "Home".
Step 2.
Open the "Normal" option, and a small window will open on the left where you can activate the "Outline" feature. This allows you to select the text of the slide, or the content of all slides, at once.
Step 3.
The "Review" function allows you to change the language, but this only affects the editing language and therefore the content of the slides. If, however, your goal is to make other changes to the slides as well, it's best to do this via the "View" tab and then "Normal".
As mentioned earlier, this approach allows you to adjust the language settings to an existing presentation, saving yourself a lot of work. However, if you're starting a new project, it's always a good idea to check beforehand that the correct vocabulary is activated.
It is also possible to adjust the language setting in PowerPoint for individual text passages.
Perhaps there are one or two quotes in your presentation that weren't written in German, and you'd like to check if they're grammatically correct or if you've made any spelling mistakes? That's no problem in PowerPoint either. Just do the following:
Step 1.
Highlight the text passage in the other language using your mouse.
Step 2.
Next, activate the "Check" menu item, which is located in the top bar.
Step 3.
Now, it is possible to change the vocabulary for the selected and highlighted text passage via the language settings, without having to completely rewrite the entire presentation for this purpose.
Change language settings in PowerPoint for Mac
If you have already read our tips above, but own a MacBook, we now offer you the key to changing the language in PowerPoint for Mac.
Step 1.
First, open the PowerPoint program and activate one of the slides with a click.
Step 2.
Now open the "Extras" menu item, where you will next see the tab for changing the language. You will now have various options to choose from, and you can select your desired vocabulary. Once you have done this, select "Default...". The system will then ask you if you really want to set the new language selection as the default. Confirm this question with "Yes".
Step 3.
Close and reopen PowerPoint to finish, and you will have successfully completed the language change.
Thanks to this setting change, you can ensure in less than a minute that the spelling and grammar check is now adapted to your chosen language variant, and (almost) nothing stands in the way of error-free presentations.
Change the language setting in PowerPoint for Mac for individual text passages
If you already have a finished piece of work in front of you and would like to change the language setting only for one or a few text passages, that's also no problem.
Step 1.
Go to the relevant slide and highlight the text passage you are referring to.
Step 2.
Then go to the menu item “Extras”, then to the language selection and choose one of the options provided.
Step 3.
Confirm your choice with "OK" and the language setting for the text passages you selected will have been successfully changed.
Switch PowerPoint slide to English
English is the most widely spoken language in the world. It's therefore not surprising that more and more CEOs and professors expect their students to give presentations in English. Accordingly, you should prepare your PowerPoint presentation in this way as well.
Only then will listeners who speak a different native language than yourself be able to follow along. Of course, you can also make the content of your presentation visually available in English and adjust the spelling accordingly without spending too much time. For this purpose, it's best to simply follow our short guide.
Step 1.
Start the program and activate the "File" tab in the top menu bar.
Step 2.
Then go to “Options” in the bottom left corner and then to “Language”.
Step 3.
Now you have the option to select "English" and only need to confirm your choice with "Set as preferred" and a final "OK".
With these simple step-by-step instructions, you have not only changed a slide, but also the spell checker to English, allowing you to check whether you might have made one or two careless mistakes while writing the text.
But what happens if English is just one of many languages used in creating your presentation, for example, because you want to include quotes from various experts? Then simply changing the language becomes difficult, and you'll quickly lose track of what's spelled correctly and what isn't. But even in this case, we have the perfect solution for your problem.
The solution - The language add-in for PowerPoint
If you frequently work with Office programs, you'll likely appreciate the straightforward spell checker. However, if you're preparing a document in PowerPoint and using not just one, but several language versions, this otherwise practical tool quickly reaches its limits .
Of course, you could select each individual text passage, make the desired adjustments, and repeat this process until you've finished your work. But do you really want to invest that much time and effort when there's a much easier way? Thanks to the Spell Check Language Switcher add-in, that's no longer necessary. You can find the add-in here .
One click to change language settings
Thanks to the Spell Check Language Switcher add-in, changing the language setting and spell checker is easier than ever. You can switch individual text fields, grouped items, notes, and even tables to your preferred vocabulary at any time, with minimal effort. Four different language buttons are available in the "Check" tab.
You can change the default language setting (German, British English, American English, and French) to suit your preferences. Other available languages include Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Greek, and Turkish.
With the Spell Check Language Switcher add-in, you can:
- perform a lightning-fast spell check in different language variants
- Place your four preferred languages on separate buttons for even faster access.
- Check all formats and content of your slides, whether they are lists, tables, or anything else.
The Spell Checker Language Switcher add-in is compatible with all PowerPoint versions since 2010 and can be installed in seconds. If you choose this extremely practical program, the license key will be available to you within 48 hours via email.
Bonus tip: Insert special characters in PowerPoint – even without changing the language
Changing the PowerPoint language often also introduces special characters that we might not use as frequently in German. This can be the case with names or words in foreign languages, or generally with mathematical symbols and formulas . Even if you don't want to change your PowerPoint language, you can still insert special characters.
There are several ways to insert these special characters:
- Many special characters can be inserted using keyboard shortcuts . To do this, hold down the ATL key and enter the number combination using the numeric keypad. These number combinations can be found in the Character Map (press Windows key + R) . A window will open in the lower left corner. Type "charmap" here.
Pressing Enter will now open the character map.
Insert the special character here by clicking, or select the number combination for the shortcut from the table below. We explain which other useful shortcuts you can enter with your keyboard in this article : https://www.presentationload.de/blog/shortcuts-zur-effizienten-arbeit-mit-powerpoint/ .
- AutoCorrect can also help you save time by using keyboard shortcuts. For the shortcuts you use frequently, simply choose a unique abbreviation and save it in AutoCorrect. To do this, press Windows key + R to open the "Run" dialog box and type "charmap" in the search field. Then click OK. A character map will open in a new window, from which you can copy the desired special character. Now go to "File" and select "Options." In the "Proofing" section , enter your keyboard shortcut under "Replace." Paste your selected special character into the "with" field using Ctrl+V .
-
Alternatively, you can select your special characters directly from the Character Map. To do this, first open it as described above and then select the font you are using for your text. You can then insert your desired special character into your document by clicking with the mouse. The Character Map can also be opened by going to the Insert tab > Symbol.
Conclusion – Changing the language in PowerPoint is easy with the right instructions.
Changing the language in PowerPoint is not a big deal and, thanks to our step-by-step instructions, can be done without problems even by absolute computer novices in most cases.
Things usually only get complicated when different languages need to be used within a single document, for example, to reproduce original quotations. If this is the case for you and you don't want to invest unnecessary time and effort in manually selecting and switching each language individually, the Spell Check Language Switcher add-in is definitely the right tool for you.
This allows language changes to be implemented in a very short time, without requiring numerous unnecessary steps. Nothing stands in the way of relaxed preparation and a successful presentation.