Translate a PowerPoint presentation into German

What German changes on a slide

A slide is a fixed space, and German takes up room. Text is often 20 to 35 % longer than English, and compound nouns cannot be broken where you would like. ‘Risk management’ becomes Risikomanagement; ‘Business continuity plan’ becomes Betriebskontinuitätsplan, a single word that can double the width of a short title or a table cell.

• Capitals: every noun is capitalised (die Ergebnisse, das Ziel), but headings do not use English title case. ‘Our Key Results’ becomes Unsere wichtigsten Ergebnisse, not Unsere Wichtigsten Ergebnisse.
• Formality: business German addresses the audience as Sie. A closing ‘Get in touch’ slide becomes Kontaktieren Sie uns. Some consumer brands use the informal du; decide this before translating, not during review.
• Numbers and dates: decimal comma and full stop for thousands (1.500,50 €), dates as 31.12.2025, times as 14:30 Uhr. An English 1,500.50 left unchanged reads as a different number.
• Plurals: only singular and plural, but zero takes the plural: 1 Folie, 0 Folien, 20 Folien.
• Punctuation: quotation marks „like this“ in Germany and Austria, « like this » in Switzerland, where ss also replaces ß.
• Inclusive forms: Mitarbeiter:innen or Mitarbeitende lengthen bullet points further; check what your audience expects.

What Manuce returns, and what it leaves alone

Manuce translates the text on every slide: titles, placeholders, text boxes, shapes, shapes inside groups and tables. You get your original .pptx back: theme, images, shape positions, animations and transitions are those of your file; only the text changes. You also receive a Word version, a PDF and plain text, handy for a German-speaking colleague who reviews without PowerPoint.

What is not done at present:

• Speaker notes are not translated. If the German presenter reads from the notes, they need handling separately.
• Charts, SmartArt, slide masters and text embedded in images stay in the source language. A bar chart titled ‘Revenue by quarter’ keeps that title and its axis labels in the middle of a German deck.
• Mixed formatting: a paragraph mixing several formats takes the formatting of its start. In ‘We cut costs by 30 %’, the bold is lost; German word order moves the figure anyway (Wir senken die Kosten um 30 %), so emphasis has to be reapplied by hand.
• Box size is not recalculated. Longer German text can overflow a fixed-size box; if autofit is set in PowerPoint, it applies.

Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations; a presentation rarely needs one.

Preparing the file before upload

A few minutes of preparation saves most of the clean-up afterwards.

• Give fixed boxes room: widen titles that are already full and narrow table columns, or switch on text autofit for those boxes. ‘Action plan 2025’ fits on one line, and so does Maßnahmenplan 2025, but ‘Sustainable development goals’ turns into Nachhaltigkeitsentwicklungsziele or Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung.
• Move text out of untranslated elements: a SmartArt converted to ordinary shapes becomes shape text, which is translated. For charts, put the title in a text box rather than inside the chart, or plan to edit the labels afterwards.
• Speaker notes: paste them into a Word document and have it translated at the same time, then paste the German notes back slide by slide.
• Formatting: note sentences with a bold or coloured word in the middle, so you know where to restore emphasis.
• Images containing text: screenshots and diagrams exported as pictures stay as they are; swap in German versions if you have them.

Reviewing the German deck slide by slide

Run the deck in slideshow mode, not just in the editing view: overflow is easier to spot full screen.

1. Titles and bullets: look for text spilling out of its box or wrapping onto a second line. For an overlong compound, rephrase rather than break it: Betriebskontinuitätsplan can become Plan zur Betriebskontinuität.
2. Tables: column headers grow the most (‘Lead time’ becomes Lieferzeit, ‘Qty’ becomes Menge, ‘Due date’ becomes Fälligkeitsdatum); adjust column widths or font size.
3. Leftover source text: charts, SmartArt, footers from the master, images. The PDF makes these easy to spot at a glance.
4. Consistency: check that Sie is used throughout, including the final slide, and that amounts follow 1.500,50 €.

For a deck going to German-speaking clients or partners, the Professional or Premium level and a read-through by a German speaker on your team are advisable; Essential is enough to understand a deck shared internally.

In practice

1. Widen fixed text boxes and convert any SmartArt you need translated into shapes.
2. Upload the .pptx to Manuce, choose German and a level, then check the quote and the free sample.
3. Download the translated .pptx, Word version, PDF and plain text from your client area.
4. Review in slideshow mode: overflow, charts still in the source language, emphasis to restore.