Translate a PowerPoint presentation into Italian

What Italian changes on your slides

Coming from English, Italian text runs noticeably longer: a slide whose title only just fitted may now wrap or spill out of a fixed-size text box. From French or Spanish the length stays much closer, so overflow is less of a concern.

Three Italian-specific points come up in almost every deck:

• Title capitalisation. Italian capitalises only the first word and proper nouns. “Our Growth Strategy” becomes La nostra strategia di crescita, not La Nostra Strategia Di Crescita. Months and weekdays stay lower case: lunedì 15 marzo.
• Accents carry meaning. è (is) versus e (and), perché, più, città, attività. At the start of a sentence the correct form is È, not the E' still seen in hastily typed titles.
• Elision apostrophes. They are everywhere: l'obiettivo, dell'anno, un'opportunità. Watch the gender trap: un'azienda (feminine) takes the apostrophe, un obiettivo (masculine) does not.

Italian puts no space before colons or question marks, and a closing “Any questions?” slide simply reads Domande?

Register, numbers and Italian conventions

A deck for an Italian client or partner uses a formal register. A single reader is addressed with Lei (La ringraziamo per l'attenzione), a room with voi, and action bullets usually take the infinitive: “Contact the team” becomes Contattare il team, or a noun phrase such as Contatto con il team. Check the same choice holds from slide to slide.

Number formats differ from British and American usage:

• full stop for thousands, comma for decimals: 1.500, 12,5%;
• dates as day/month/year: 15/03/2025 or 15 marzo 2025;
• amounts most often written 1.500 €.

Plurals follow the CLDR categories one, many and other: 1 utente, 2 utenti, and for large round figures un milione di visitatori, due milioni di euro, with the preposition di. English loanwords common in Italian business (team, budget, manager, meeting) stay invariable: i manager, never i managers.

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 back your original .pptx: 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 having a colleague in Milan or Rome review the Italian without opening PowerPoint.

What currently stays in the source language:

• speaker notes: if an Italian presenter needs them, plan for them separately;
• text in charts, SmartArt and slide masters (a “Confidential” footer placed on the master will not become Riservato);
• text embedded in images.

Two formatting limits: a paragraph mixing several styles takes the formatting of its beginning (a bold word mid-sentence loses its bold), and 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 avoid most fixes afterwards:

• Move key chart and SmartArt text out into ordinary text boxes: an axis title or caption typed in a text box is translated, one inside the chart is not.
• Replace images of text (a screenshot of a slogan, a banner exported as PNG) with live text where you can.
• Check the theme font. Standard fonts include à è é ì ò ù, but a trimmed corporate font may show empty boxes instead of più or è.
• Turn on autofit for tight text boxes, especially if your source is English.
• Copy speaker notes into a Word document if the presenter needs them, so they can be translated separately.

Before paying, the free sample shows one paragraph from your file translated at the level you picked: use it to judge register and title style. For a deck shown to Italian clients, the Professional level matches “ready to send”.

Checking the Italian version before you present

Run the deck as a slide show, one slide at a time, with this list to hand:

1. No title overflows its box or jumps to three lines where it used to fit on two.
2. Titles are lower case after the first word, with no capital on every term.
3. Words bolded mid-sentence have kept their bold; if not, restore it by hand.
4. Numbers follow Italian usage: 1.500 not 1,500, 3,2% not 3.2%.
5. Elements left in the source language (charts, SmartArt, master footer, images) have been dealt with or accepted.
6. The closing slide reads Grazie or Domande? and fits its box.

The PDF copy is useful for this final group review: everyone can annotate it without risk of nudging a shape in the .pptx.

In practice

1. Prepare the .pptx: chart and image text retyped in text boxes, autofit switched on.
2. Upload the file to Manuce, choose Italian and read the quote based on the exact word count.
3. Check the free sample for register and title style, then pay.
4. Download the translated .pptx with its Word, PDF and plain text versions from your client area.
5. Review as a slide show: overflow, capitalisation, numbers, bold text and untranslated elements.