Translate a PowerPoint presentation into Greek

What changes when a slide goes into Greek

Greek runs left to right, so the structure of your slides stays as it is. What changes is the alphabet and the length of the words.

• Glyphs. Your theme font must include the Greek alphabet. Calibri, Arial and Times New Roman do; a brand typeface drawn only for Latin script does not. Greek text then appears in a fallback font with different widths and a different look, or even as empty boxes.
• Length. Greek words are often long: “Results” becomes Αποτελέσματα, “Human resources” Ανθρώπινο δυναμικό. One-line titles and narrow table columns are the first to overflow.
• Capitals. Greek writes the stress accent on lower-case letters but drops it in capitals: Παρουσίαση becomes ΠΑΡΟΥΣΙΑΣΗ. The diaeresis stays where it separates two vowels: ευρωπαϊκός becomes ΕΥΡΩΠΑΪΚΟΣ. If your titles are capitalised by formatting rather than typed in capitals, check how they display.
• Register. A business presentation addresses the audience with the polite plural εσείς.

Punctuation and numbers on Greek slides

These are the details a Greek audience spots at once, especially on title and summary slides.

• Question mark. Greek uses the sign ;. A slide headed “Why us?” becomes Γιατί εμάς;. A stray “?” in a Greek title stands out.
• Semicolon. It is written as a raised dot, · (ano teleia).
• Quotation marks. Greek uses angle quotes « ».
• Numbers. Decimal comma, full stop for thousands: 2.450.000, 3,7. Figures copied from an English deck (2,450,000) must be corrected.
• Dates. Day, month, year: 15/03/2025.
• Plurals. Greek has only two forms, singular and plural: 1 αγορά, 3 αγορές. But nouns decline and agree in gender, so a lone label such as “Total” or “New” may take a different form depending on what it refers to. Read short labels on their own.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

Manuce translates the text in titles, placeholders, text boxes, shapes, grouped shapes and tables. You get your original .pptx back: theme, images, shape positions, animations and transitions stay as they were, and only the text turns Greek. You also receive a Word version, a PDF and plain text, handy for a Greek-speaking colleague to review without PowerPoint.

What stays in the source language:

• speaker notes, which are not translated at present;
• text in charts (axis titles, legends), SmartArt, slide masters (a “Confidential” footer on the master, for instance) and text embedded in images.

Two layout limits matter particularly for Greek:

• text box sizes are not recalculated, so a longer Greek title can overflow a fixed box; only the autofit setting chosen in PowerPoint applies;
• a paragraph mixing several formats takes the formatting of its start. Greek word order rarely matches the source anyway, so a bold word mid-sentence needs re-emphasising by hand.

Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations. A presentation rarely needs one; for an official document in a Greek file, use a sworn translator.

Preparing the file and checking the Greek version

Before uploading:

• Test the theme font. Type a few Greek letters (αβγ ΔΣΩ) into a text box. If they appear in another typeface, switch to a font that covers Greek before translating.
• Give titles room. Turn on autofit for tight boxes, or widen them.
• Move key text out of charts and images if you need it translated: a text box on the slide is handled, a chart legend is not.

Before paying, the free sample translates one paragraph of your file at the chosen level: the moment to check that a product name or acronym stays as it is in Greek.

After delivery:

• run the slideshow and look for overflowing text;
• search for any “?” left in Greek text and for English-style numbers;
• check capitalised titles: no stress accent, diaeresis kept;
• handle speaker notes, charts and the master footer separately.

In practice

1. Check that your theme font displays Greek letters and give titles some room.
2. Upload the .pptx and choose Greek: the quote is based on the exact word count.
3. Read the free sample, paying attention to names and acronyms.
4. Download the Greek .pptx, plus the Word, PDF and plain-text versions.
5. Review the slideshow: overflow, the ; question mark, unaccented capitals, charts and notes.