We explored how you can translate text from one language to another
in PowerPoint 2013. To make better use of these translation features, you should be aware of the various options available to get just
the results you want. In this tutorial, we will simplify these options for you.
Follow these steps to explore translation options in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows:
- Launch PowerPoint and open any existing presentation that contains the text you want to translate. If you will save the
translated slides, it is a good idea to save the presentation as a new file (Keyboard shortcut: F12).
- Access the Research Task Pane, as explained in our
Translation in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows tutorial.
- Notice that we have the From language set to English (U.S.) and the To language set
to French(France), as shown in Figure 1, below. It does not matter which language pair you use, but do bear that we have
used this language pair only as an example.
Figure 1: Translation in the Research Task Pane
- You will notice that since we merely typed in a single word, "Apple" in the Search for box,
the translation merely shows a dictionary as of now, as shown in Figure 1, above. However, if we change the content in
the Search for box to a longer sentence such as "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," you see an option
called Microsoft Translator, which is an online Translation service (see Figure 2). At times, you may
see WordLingo, another online Translation service.
Figure 2: Using an online Translation service- To find how these options show up, click the Translation option hyperlink,
highlighted in red within Figure 2, above.
- This action will bring up the Translation Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 3, below.
Figure 3: Translation Options dialog box- The Translation Options dialog box determines how the translation occurs. These options are explained below, as marked in
Figure 3, above.
A. Bilingual dictionary
- This section is related to the translation using dictionaries. You can opt to Use online dictionary;
this lets you access dictionaries not installed on your system. You must be connected online for this option to work. Further, you can check
or uncheck the option that says Use only when the installed dictionary is unavailable. This choice means that online
dictionaries will be used only for languages that are not locally available.
B. Available language pairs
- This area shows the various language pairs available. You can disable or enable any language pairs you do not want to
show in the Research Task Pane.
C. Machine translation
- You can enable or disable machine translation by selecting or deselecting the Use online machine
translation checkbox.
- For every available language pair, you can choose a translation service such as Microsoft Translator or
WorldLingo. Do note that while Microsoft Translator is free and widely available across most language pairs,
WorldLingo is limited to a few language pairs. In Figure 4, below you can see that we have changed the service
from Microsoft Translator to WorldLingo for French (France).
Figure 4: Changed the service to WorldLingo for French (France)
- Once you make any changes, click the OK button to apply these changes.
- Now since we changed machine translation from Microsoft Translator to WorldLingo for
French (France), you can see different options in the Research Task Pane in Figure 5, below
(compare with Figure 2, earlier on this page).
Figure 5: WorldLingo for French (France) within the Research Task Pane- You will notice that WorldLingo provides some more options, such as getting a quote for professional translation.
