Translating the words is only half the job. The other half is making sure the translated presentation looks and reads as well as the original: headings don't run off the edge, numbers keep their meaning, and the images don't still speak the old language. Here are the ways to translate, what to prepare beforehand and what to check afterwards.
Three ways to translate a presentation
| Method | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| A human translator | Accuracy, tone, the right terminology | Slower and more expensive; every later edit goes through the translator again |
| Machine translation piece by piece | Free and fast | You copy text out and paste it back one block at a time |
| Translation inside the presentation editor | Fast, text stays where it was | Needs a review by someone who knows the language |
In practice people combine them: a machine or AI produces the draft, a person proofreads it. A quick check is enough for an internal meeting; for an investor pitch, a contract or a public page, show the translation to a native speaker.
What to prepare before translating
- Finish the source first. Every change after translation has to be made twice — in the original and in the translation.
- Make a list of terms. Product names, job titles, internal concepts: how to translate each one and what to leave as is. Otherwise the same term gets three different translations on three slides.
- Decide what stays untranslated. Brands, names, company names, sometimes industry words your audience knows in English anyway.
- Pick the form of address. Many languages distinguish formal and informal “you”: du or Sie in German, tu or vous in French. The translation should keep one tone across all slides.
What to check after translating
Text length
Translated text is almost never the same length as the original. Citing IBM's guidelines, the W3C gives these benchmarks for translating from English into European languages: the shorter the string, the more it grows — labels of up to 10 characters can become two to three times longer, while text over 70 characters grows by about a third (W3C: Text size in translation). So start by going through buttons, headings, table headers and chart labels: short labels break before paragraphs do.
Numbers, dates and units
Formats depend on the language. Some languages separate decimals with a comma, others with a point: 1,5 versus 1.5. A date written 03/04 means March 4 in the US and 3 April in much of Europe. The currency sign goes before or after the number, and distances come in kilometers or miles. Check every number, and make sure the translation neither lost nor added any.
Terms and tone
Go through your list of terms: is each one translated the same way everywhere? Check the form of address and the style too — a business text shouldn't turn casual in places.
Images and charts
Text inside images doesn't translate itself: interface screenshots, labels drawn on diagrams and handwritten notes stay in the old language. Those images have to be replaced. Check chart labels and legends separately — they're easy to miss.
Everything that isn't on a slide
Speaker notes, the file or page title, the search description and the link preview are text too, and people read them.
Fonts
Make sure the font has the letters of the new language — Cyrillic, letters with diacritics. If a letter is missing, it's drawn in a fallback font and stands out in the word.
One presentation or two
If people who speak different languages will view the presentation, make two versions with two links — one per language. Mix two languages on one slide only when the audience really is mixed, for example at an international event. And keep the original version: you'll come back to it more than once.
How to do it in JamPres
- Open the “AI” tab. It's in the panel on the right side of the editor.
- Choose a language. In the “Translate the whole presentation” list, pick one of ten languages: Russian, English, Spanish, Ukrainian, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish or Swedish.
- Confirm. The editor translates every slide, your own website texts and the presentation title. One undo (Ctrl+Z) brings everything back.
The translation keeps names, brands, numbers, dates and links exactly as in the original — adjust date and decimal formats for the new language yourself if needed. If the model returns a fragment in the wrong shape or with new numbers, that fragment stays untranslated, and the editor tells you how many were translated out of how many — fix those spots by hand.
All block text is translated: headings, paragraphs, lists, quotes, buttons, tables, chart and diagram labels, tabs, the poll question and options, image captions. Together with the presentation's language, the labels viewers see change too: the navigation buttons, the password or email gate, and the form's default field labels, button and consent text.
What isn't translated: text inside images, “Speaker notes”, form labels and texts you wrote yourself, and your own texts in the website header, footer and “Page”. Check and fix those by hand.
The price is shown next to the list before you start: 5 credits per batch of up to 30 fragments and 2,500 characters. Translation is available on every plan and is paid for with credits — see what credits are. The “Translate” list in the same tab translates only the current slide, and selected text can be translated from the toolbar above it.
Translation changes the draft: the link shows the new language after “Update publication”. And if you need both versions at once, build a second presentation from the same source text and translate that one — the original stays as it was.
Build a presentation in your own language — you can translate it later, all at once, with one command.
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