Translate a PowerPoint presentation into Czech

What Czech changes on your slides

Czech uses the Latin alphabet, but with diacritics that not every typeface includes: ř, ů, ě, č, š, ž, ď, ť, ň. The standard fonts in Office themes cover them; some display or corporate brand fonts do not. PowerPoint then swaps in another font for the missing letters, and a single word ends up mixing glyphs from two typefaces.

Other visible effects:

• Accented capitals (Ř, Č, Ě) are taller: in an all-caps title with tight fixed line spacing, the háček can be clipped.
• Length: Czech has no articles, but its words are long and inflected (zodpovědnost, nejdůležitějších). From English especially, a short bullet often wraps onto a second line and overflows a narrow box.
• Title capitalisation: Czech capitalises only the first word of a heading, plus proper nouns. "Quarterly Sales Results" becomes Čtvrtletní výsledky prodeje, which is correct.

Czech numbers, plurals and typography

Czech conventions differ from English on several points:

• Numbers: decimal comma and a space for thousands: 1 250,50 Kč, with the koruna after the amount.
• Dates: day, month and year separated by a full stop and a space: 12. 3. 2025, or 12. března 2025.
• Quotation marks: low then high, „Výsledky“, not "…" or ‘…’.
• Plurals: four forms depending on the number. 1 snímek, 2 snímky (2 to 4), 5 snímků (5 and above), 1,5 snímku for decimals. A slide reading "3 markets" or "12 countries" needs the noun to agree with the figure.
• One-letter prepositions: Czech typography avoids leaving v, k, s, z, o, u, a, i at the end of a line. PowerPoint does not handle this, so after translation a non-breaking space between the preposition and the next word fixes it in prominent titles.

Brand names are also declined: v PowerPointu, pro společnost Acme. That is normal Czech and should not be "corrected".

What Manuce returns, and what it leaves untranslated

Manuce translates the text on every slide: titles, placeholders, text boxes, shapes, grouped shapes and tables. You get your original .pptx back with Czech text where the source text was; theme, images, shape positions, animations and transitions are those of your file. You also receive a Word version, a PDF and plain text, handy for a Czech-speaking colleague to review without PowerPoint.

What is not done at present:

• Speaker notes are not translated.
• Text inside charts, SmartArt, slide masters and text embedded in images stays in the source language: an axis label reading "Revenue" will not become Tržby.
• A paragraph mixing several formats takes the formatting of its start. Czech word order differs anyway, so a word you bolded mid-sentence will have moved: reapply the bold by hand.
• Text box sizes are not recalculated; whatever autofit setting you chose in PowerPoint applies.

Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations.

Preparing the file before upload

A few minutes of preparation saves most of the touch-ups:

• Test your theme fonts: type the Czech pangram Příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy into a text box using the heading font, then the body font. If any letter changes shape, pick a font with Central European coverage.
• Turn on autofit for tight text boxes, or give them spare width.
• Move chart text out if you need it translated: a chart title placed in an ordinary text box will be translated.
• Copy speaker notes into a separate Word document if the Czech presenter needs them, and have that translated on its own.

Czech is a surcharged language (×1.25 coefficient on the per-word rate), already included in the quote shown on upload.

Checking the Czech version before you present

Open the Czech .pptx in slide show mode and go through every slide:

1. Overflow: bullets spilling out of shapes, three-line titles, table cells widening.
2. Diacritics: clipped háčeks in capitalised titles, letters in a different font.
3. Leftover source text: charts, SmartArt, master footers, screenshots.
4. Terms to keep as they are: product names, slogans, acronyms. Check them first in the free sample, then in the delivered translation.
5. Typography: one-letter prepositions at line ends in titles, „ “ quotation marks, the 12. 3. 2025 date format.

For a business audience, the formal vy is the norm: check it is used consistently from one slide to the next.

In practice

1. Test your theme fonts with a Czech pangram and turn on autofit for tight text boxes.
2. Upload the .pptx: the quote appears at once, based on the exact word count.
3. Read the free Czech sample, choose your level and pay.
4. Download the Czech .pptx, plus the Word, PDF and plain-text versions if needed.
5. Run the slide show: check overflow, diacritics, and any charts or notes left in the source language.