Translate a PowerPoint presentation into Swedish

What Swedish changes on a slide

Swedish uses the Latin alphabet, left to right, plus three extra letters: å, ä, ö. Overall text volume stays close to an English or French original; what changes is word shape. Swedish writes compounds as one word, so "quality assurance process" becomes kvalitetssäkringsprocessen, definite article included.

On a slide, this matters because PowerPoint will not break a word that does not fit on the line. A short heading such as "Sales organisation" becomes Försäljningsorganisationen, which can spill out of a narrow box, a shape label or a table cell even when the sentence as a whole is no longer.

Other visible differences:

• Heading case: Swedish capitalises only the first word. "Our Sales Strategy" becomes Vår försäljningsstrategi, not "Vår Försäljningsstrategi".
• Lower case for days, months and nationality adjectives: måndag, januari, svenska kunder.
• Register: informal du is standard in Swedish business communication; formal ni can sound distant or old-fashioned on a client-facing slide.

Numbers, dates, quotation marks and plurals

Swedish conventions differ from British and American ones. Check these in tables and results slides:

• Decimals: a comma, not a point (3,5 %), and a space as thousands separator (12 500). The percent sign takes a space.
• Dates: the usual numeric form is ISO, 2025-03-14; written out, months stay lower case, 15 januari.
• Times: often with a full stop, kl. 14.30.
• Quotation marks: ”citat”, using the same closing-style mark at both ends.
• Currency: kr or SEK follows the number.

Swedish has only two plural categories (one and other), but endings vary: 1 bild, 3 bilder; 1 deltagare, 5 deltagare (unchanged). Adjectives also agree with gender: "New" is Ny produkt but Nytt projekt. A lone label in a shape, with no surrounding sentence, deserves a careful read.

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 Swedish text in place: 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 Swedish-speaking reviewer without PowerPoint.

What stays in the source language:

• speaker notes, which are not translated at present;
• text in charts, SmartArt and slide masters (a "Confidential" footer on the master will not become Konfidentiellt);
• text embedded in images.

Two formatting limits:

• a paragraph mixing several formats takes the formatting of its start, so a single bold word mid-sentence loses its bold;
• text box sizes are not recalculated. A long Swedish compound may overflow a fixed box; any autofit set in PowerPoint still applies.

Manuce does not provide sworn or certified translation. Swedish carries a ×1.25 coefficient on the per-word rate, already included in your quote.

Preparing your deck before upload

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

• Fonts: most common fonts include å, ä and ö, but a brand or display font may not, and PowerPoint will substitute another. Type Göteborg, Västerås in a box using your theme font to check.
• Tight boxes: widen cramped labels, buttons and narrow table columns, or switch on text autofit for them.
• Charts and SmartArt: if key labels must be in Swedish, turn them into ordinary text boxes or plan to edit them by hand.
• Notes: if you will present in Swedish, copy the notes into a separate document and have it translated too.
• Isolated bold: note sentences with a single emphasised word so you can restore it afterwards.

For a product name or term that must stay as it is, check it in the free sample and then in the delivered translation.

Reviewing the Swedish .pptx

Step through the slides in Normal view, then in Slide Show, looking for:

• compound words that overflow or wrap awkwardly inside a heading;
• Title Case surviving in untranslated elements such as masters or charts;
• numbers: decimal commas, thousands spaces, ISO dates consistent between tables and body text;
• anything left in the source language: master footers, chart legends, text inside pictures.

The PDF makes a quick read by a Swedish speaker easy on a phone; the plain text helps spot inconsistent terms at a glance, for instance kund and klient both used for "customer".

In practice

1. Check that your theme font displays å, ä and ö, and widen the narrowest text boxes.
2. Upload the .pptx: an instant quote appears, based on the exact word count.
3. Pick a level and read the free Swedish sample paragraph before paying.
4. Download the Swedish .pptx, Word version, PDF and plain text from your account.
5. Review overflow, number formats and untranslated items (notes, charts, masters).