Changing Proofing Language for an Entire Presentation in PowerPoint 365 for Windows

While it is easy to change the proofing language for selected text containers, doing so one text container at a time can be a great time-waster, especially if you need the language changed across all content in many slides. There are three ways to set the proofing language for your entire presentation, and you can use one or more of these approaches. Make sure you have the proofing tools installed for all or any of the languages that you need to work within PowerPoint.

Follow these steps to change the proofing language for an entire presentation in PowerPoint 365 for Windows:

1. By Selecting Individual Text Containers

Follow these steps to change the proofing language for some or all text containers in your presentation:

1. Within PowerPoint, navigate to any slide. Now, select all text containers on this slide. You can select the text containers in various ways:
1. If there is only one text container on the slide, click on the edge of the text container to select it.
2. If there are more than one text containers on the slide and nothing else, press Ctrl + A to select all text containers.
3. If there are more than one text containers on the slide that also include other slide objects, press Ctrl + A to select all slide objects on the slide. Then, deselect the slide object that you may not want as part of the selection. You can quickly deselect any object by Shift +clicking the object.


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2. At this point of time, you have selected one or all text containers you want to alter the proofing language for, as shown in Figure 1, below.
3. 
   Figure 1: Text containers on the slide selected
4. You can alter the proofing language by clicking the Language button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below. Alternatively, click the Language option on the Status Bar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, above.
5. 
   Figure 2: Set proofing language

No Language Option on the Status Bar?

Cannot see the Language option on the Status Bar. See our Language Options on the Status Bar in PowerPoint 365 for Windows tutorial.
3. Doing so brings up the Language dialog box, shown in Figure 3, below. Scroll down to select an installed Editing Languages. Installed languages can be recognized by the checkmark preceding them as shown in Figure 3. Choose the language you want to use for your selected text container. Thereafter click the OK button, highlighted in blue within Figure 3.
4. 
   Figure 3: Choose the new proofing language
4. Doing so will change the proofing language, and you will see the updated language on the Status Bar.
5. You can repeat this process to change the Language option for all the other slides in your presentation.

2. By Using Outline View

Follow these steps to change the proofing language for the entire presentation through Outline view:

1. With your presentation open, access Outline view, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, below. This view is a special view that's part of the PowerPoint 365 interface and shows all text within the text placeholders of your presentation.
2. 
   Figure 4: Outline view within PowerPoint

Text Placeholders vs. Text Boxes

The Outline view only shows textual content in placeholders, and leaves out any text content in text boxes or shapes. Learn about the difference between a text box and a text placeholder in our Text Boxes vs. Text Placeholders tutorial.
2. Click once within the left pane in Outline view, and select the entire text content by pressing Ctrl + A on your keyboard. Now, click the Language option on the Status Bar, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 5, above.
3. This step summons the Language dialog box, as shown previously on this page in Figure 3. Scroll down to select an installed Editing Languages. Installed languages can be recognized by the checkmark preceding them as shown in Figure 3. Choose the language you want to use for your selected text container. Thereafter click the OK button, highlighted in blue within Figure 3.
4. Note that this approach only changes the proofing language for text placeholders, and leaves text boxes and shapes untouched. For more information on the differences between these various text containers, look at our Text Placeholders vs. Text Boxes tutorial. Shapes with text behave just like text boxes.
5. Save your presentation.

3. By Using think-cell

This technique requires that you have think-cell installed. think-cell is a third-party add-in for PowerPoint. Although we select one text container using this process, the resultant change of proofing language will be for the entire presentation. Follow these steps to proceed:

1. Select any text container in your presentation, as shown in Figure 5, below.
2. 
   Figure 5: Select any text container

What's a Text Container?

A text container is any of these three slide objects that can include text: text placeholders, text boxes, and shapes.
2. Within the Review tab of the Ribbon, locate and click the Language button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, previously on this page. Doing so brings up a small drop-down menu. Choose the Set Proofing Language option, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 2.
3. Doing so will summon the Language dialog box that you see in Figure 6, below. Do note that this dialog box is different than the original Language dialog box shown in Figure 3, previously on this page. This new dialog box shows up only when you have the think-cell add-in for PowerPoint installed.
4. 
   Figure 6: Choose the proofing language
4. Choose a proofing language from the dialog box shown in Figure 6, above. You may need to scroll down to choose a language you need. Do note that installed languages can be recognized by the checkmark preceding them as shown in Figure 6. When you have selected the proofing language, you can choose any of the following options:

OK

5. Click the OK button, highlighted in blue within Figure 6. To make this change for the selected text container.

All Text

6. Click the All Text button, highlighted in red within Figure 6 to change the proofing language of all text containers in the presentation.

Text on Slide

7. Click the Text on Slide button, highlighted in green within Figure 6 to change the proofing language of all text containers in the slide.
5. Doing so changes the proofing language for all text containers to the selected language.