Changing the proofing language of the entire presentation, i.e. the editing language used by the built-in spell checker, is not a straight forward task in Microsoft PowerPoint. It is quite strange why Microsoft has not made this common task more accessible to the user. If a presentation that should be in English is originally set to French, you must manually alter each and every text frame on every slide. The “Change Language” add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint, however, provides an easy way to change the proofing language of an entire presentation with just a few clicks.

How to use the proofing language add-in?

When the add-in has been installed and activated, the new button can be found on the Review tab. The Change Language button is located in a new group called “Coragi Language Tools”, which is to the right of the general language settings.

When the “Change Language” button is pressed, the following dialog is displayed:

The “Editing Languages” section lists all the installed editing languages available for Microsoft PowerPoint. It is possible to install additional editing languages if the default languages don’t fit your needs. We will come back to how you can do this later in this article. The editing languages are sorted in ascending order, and the currently active language for the presentation has been selected.

The “Range” section gives you the option to change the editing language for the “Entire Presentation” or the “Active Slide”. Usually, it is recommended to change the language for the entire presentation, since it will set the default language as well. It means that any new textboxes or shapes will use this default editing language.

When you have selected the desired editing language and the range, press the OK button. Depending on the number of slides and shapes in your presentation, setting the language can take a few seconds. The dialog is closed when the update has been completed. Now, let us show you how to get started with the “Change Language” add-in.

Prerequisites

In order to use the add-in your computer needs to satisfy the following system requirements:

1. Microsoft Windows 10 or later.
2. Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 or later.

Please notice that the add-in does not run on Mac (macOS). Only Microsoft Windows operating system is currently supported.

The web version, PowerPoint Online for Office 365, is not supported. The add-in only works with the installed client software.

Both 32 bit and 64 bit Windows operating systems are supported.

How to install the proofing language PowerPoint add-in?

This section describes how to download, enable, and use the Change Language add-in which allows you to apply a specific proofing language to all slides in a PowerPoint presentation.

In order to download, install and activate the add-in, please do the following:

Step 1: Download

Press the Download button above to get the PowerPoint add-in file.

Add-ins for Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and later use the .ppam file extension, i.e. “PowerPoint Add-in Macro”. The file contains components that add additional functionality, including extra commands, custom macros, and new tools for extending default PowerPoint functions. This type of add-in file was first introduced in 2007 with the release of Microsoft Office 2007.

Step 2: Install

When the add-in file has been downloaded to your computer, open the File Explorer  program on your computer, and copy the “Coragi Change Language Add-in.ppam” file to the following folder:

C:\Users\[your user name]\App Data\Roaming\Microsoft\Addins\

To find the File Explorer program , look for the program on your Start Menu (i.e. press the Windows button , or the Windows key on your keyboard), or search for “File Explorer”.

[Your user name] should be replaced with your user name that was specified during login.

You can easily get access to the above “Addins” folder by typing the following shortcut path in the top text box in the File Explorer and then press the Enter key:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\AddIns

You will then automatically be directed to the correct folder.

You can also find your user name by either by looking in the “C:\Users\” folder, or running the following command in a Command Prompt :

echo %username%

Please be aware that the “…\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\AddIns” folder is hidden, and the full path must be entered manually. It is not possible to open the “Users” folder in File Explorer and then browse to the folder path (unless you have enabled the option to show hidden files and folders).

Step 3: Activate

To open and activate the add-in file please do the following:

1. Open Microsoft PowerPoint
2. Select File > Options to display the options dialog. The “Options” button is found all the way down at the bottom in the left menu.
   
   
   
3. When the Options dialog is displayed, press Add-ins in the left menu. Select “PowerPoint Add-ins” in the “Manage” drop-down list. Then press the “Go…” button to view all the enabled PowerPoint add-ins.
   
   
   
4. The Add-ins dialog is displayed. If you haven’t enabled any add-ins, the list will be empty. To enable the “Change Language” add-in press the “Add New…” button, and browse for the .ppam file.
   
   
   When you have located and selected the file, press the “Open” button. Make sure that the newly added add-in has a check mark to the left of the name before you press the “Close” button in the Add-ins dialog.
   
5. Now the Change Language add-in has been enabled in PowerPoint. In case you get any security warnings (“Enable Macros”), you need to press “Enable Content”. As mentioned in the beginning of this article, you can find the “Change Language” button on the Review tab. Press the button to change the proofing language.

How to add new editing and proofing languages?

You can enable additional proofing languages by doing the following:

You need to restart PowerPoint for the language changes to take effect.

1. On the main ribbon/toolbar, to to Files > Options
2. Go to the section called “Office authoring languages and proofing”
   
   
3. Press the button call “Add a Language…” to add additional proofing languages. Select the new language to add. In our example we have selected “English (United Kingdom)”. Press the Add button when done.
   
   
   
4. When done, select the preferred proofing language, and press the “Set as Preferred” button.

You would have to restart PowerPoint for the language changes to take effect.

How to manually change the spell-check language of a presentation?

Using the Change Language add-in is the most time-saving way to change the proofing language of the active slide or the entire presentation. You can of course go also through the manual process of changing the spell check language for each and every slide, textbox and shape. We will now show you how to do it.

1. Select all shapes on each slide. You can press Ctrl+A on your keyboard to select all shapes on the current slide.
2. On the Review ribbon, click on the button called “Language“, and then the dropdown menu item “Set proofing language“
3. Select your proofing language, and press “OK”.

This process has to be repeated for every slide in your presentation. This also has to be repeated for any slide masters that your presentation uses.

Our recommendation is to use the Change Language add-in to save time.

Supported proofing languages in PowerPoint

Microsoft offers a long list of spell cheking languages for Microsoft PowerPoint. If the language is currently not available on your computer, you need to install it as described earlier in this article.

Language	LanguageID
Afrikaans	msoLanguageIDAfrikaans
Albanian	msoLanguageIDAlbanian
Amharic	msoLanguageIDAmharic
Arabic	msoLanguageIDArabic
Arabic in Algeria	msoLanguageIDArabicAlgeria
Arabic in Bahrain	msoLanguageIDArabicBahrain
Arabic in Egypt	msoLanguageIDArabicEgypt
Arabic in Iraq	msoLanguageIDArabicIraq
Arabic in Jordan	msoLanguageIDArabicJordan
Arabic in Kuwait	msoLanguageIDArabicKuwait
Arabic in Lebanon	msoLanguageIDArabicLebanon
Arabic in Libya	msoLanguageIDArabicLibya
Arabic in Morocco	msoLanguageIDArabicMorocco
Arabic in Oman	msoLanguageIDArabicOman
Arabic in Qatar	msoLanguageIDArabicQatar
Arabic in Syria	msoLanguageIDArabicSyria
Arabic in the United Arab Emirates	msoLanguageIDArabicUAE
Arabic in Tunisia	msoLanguageIDArabicTunisia
Arabic in Yemen	msoLanguageIDArabicYemen
Armenian	msoLanguageIDArmenian
Assamese	msoLanguageIDAssamese
Azeri-Cyrillic	msoLanguageIDAzeriCyrillic
Azeri-Latin	msoLanguageIDAzeriLatin
Basque (Basque)	msoLanguageIDBasque
Belarusian	msoLanguageIDByelorussian
Belgian Dutch	msoLanguageIDBelgianDutch
Belgian French	msoLanguageIDBelgianFrench
Bengali	msoLanguageIDBengali
Bokmål in Norway	msoLanguageIDNorwegianBokmol
Bosnian	msoLanguageIDBosnian
Bosnian Bosnia Herzegovina Cyrillic language	msoLanguageIDBosnianBosniaHerzegovinaCyrillic
Bosnian Bosnia Herzegovina Latin language	msoLanguageIDBosnianBosniaHerzegovinaLatin
Brazilian Portuguese	msoLanguageIDBrazilianPortuguese
Bulgarian	msoLanguageIDBulgarian
Burmese	msoLanguageIDBurmese
Catalan	msoLanguageIDCatalan
Cherokee	msoLanguageIDCherokee
Chinese in Hong Kong SAR	msoLanguageIDChineseHongKongSAR
Chinese in Macao SAR	msoLanguageIDChineseMacaoSAR
Chinese in Singapore	msoLanguageIDChineseSingapore
Croatian	msoLanguageIDCroatian
Czech	msoLanguageIDCzech
Danish	msoLanguageIDDanish
Divehi	msoLanguageIDDivehi
Dutch	msoLanguageIDDutch
Dzongkha in Bhutan	msoLanguageIDDzongkhaBhutan
Edo	msoLanguageIDEdo
English in Australia	msoLanguageIDEnglishAUS
English in Belize	msoLanguageIDEnglishBelize
English in Canada	msoLanguageIDEnglishCanadian
English in Indonesia	msoLanguageIDEnglishIndonesia
English in Ireland	msoLanguageIDEnglishIreland
English in Jamaica	msoLanguageIDEnglishJamaica
English in New Zealand	msoLanguageIDEnglishNewZealand
English in South Africa	msoLanguageIDEnglishSouthAfrica
English in the Caribbean	msoLanguageIDEnglishCaribbean
English in the Philippines	msoLanguageIDEnglishPhilippines
English in the United Kingdom	msoLanguageIDEnglishUK
English in the United States	msoLanguageIDEnglishUS
English in Trinidad and Tobago	msoLanguageIDEnglishTrinidadTobago
English in Zimbabwe	msoLanguageIDEnglishZimbabwe
Estonian	msoLanguageIDEstonian
Faeroese	msoLanguageIDFaeroese
Farsi	msoLanguageIDFarsi
Filipina	msoLanguageIDFilipino
Finnish	msoLanguageIDFinnish
French	msoLanguageIDFrench
French in Cameroon	msoLanguageIDFrenchCameroon
French in Canada	msoLanguageIDFrenchCanadian
French Congo DRC language	msoLanguageIDFrenchCongoDRC
French in Cote d’Ivoire	msoLanguageIDFrenchCotedIvoire
French in French Reunion Island	msoLanguageIDFrenchReunion
French in Haiti	msoLanguageIDFrenchHaiti
French in Luxembourg	msoLanguageIDFrenchLuxembourg
French in Mali	msoLanguageIDFrenchMali
French in Monaco	msoLanguageIDFrenchMonaco
French in Morocco	msoLanguageIDFrenchMorocco
French in Senegal	msoLanguageIDFrenchSenegal
French in Switzerland	msoLanguageIDSwissFrench
French in the Netherlands	msoLanguageIDFrisianNetherlands
French in the West Indies	msoLanguageIDFrenchWestIndies
French in Zaire	msoLanguageIDFrenchZaire
Fulfulde	msoLanguageIDFulfulde
Gaelic in Ireland	msoLanguageIDGaelicIreland
Gaelic in Scotland	msoLanguageIDGaelicScotland
Galician	msoLanguageIDGalician
Georgian	msoLanguageIDGeorgian
German	msoLanguageIDGerman
German in Austria	msoLanguageIDGermanAustria
German in Liechtenstein	msoLanguageIDGermanLiechtenstein
German in Luxembourg	msoLanguageIDGermanLuxembourg
Germanin Switzerland	msoLanguageIDSwissGerman
Greek	msoLanguageIDGreek
Guarani	msoLanguageIDGuarani
Gujarati	msoLanguageIDGujarati
Hausa	msoLanguageIDHausa
Hawaiian	msoLanguageIDHawaiian
Hebrew	msoLanguageIDHebrew
Hindi	msoLanguageIDHindi
Hungarian	msoLanguageIDHungarian
Ibibio	msoLanguageIDIbibio
Icelandic	msoLanguageIDIcelandic
Igbo	msoLanguageIDIgbo
Indonesian	msoLanguageIDIndonesian
Inuktitut	msoLanguageIDInuktitut
Italian	msoLanguageIDItalian
Italian in Switzerland	msoLanguageIDSwissItalian
Japanese	msoLanguageIDJapanese
Kannada	msoLanguageIDKannada
Kanuri	msoLanguageIDKanuri
Kashmiri	msoLanguageIDKashmiri
Kashmiri in Devanagari script	msoLanguageIDKashmiriDevanagari
Kazakh	msoLanguageIDKazakh
Khmer	msoLanguageIDKhmer
Kirghiz	msoLanguageIDKirghiz
Konkani	msoLanguageIDKonkani
Korean	msoLanguageIDKorean
Kyrgyz	msoLanguageIDKyrgyz
Lao	msoLanguageIDLao
Latin	msoLanguageIDLatin
Latvian	msoLanguageIDLatvian
Lithuanian	msoLanguageIDLithuanian
Macedonian	msoLanguageIDMacedonian
Macedonian FYROM language	msoLanguageIDMacedonianFYROM
Malay in Brunei Darussalam	msoLanguageIDMalayBruneiDarussalam
Malayalam	msoLanguageIDMalayalam
Malaysian	msoLanguageIDMalaysian
Maltese	msoLanguageIDMaltese
Manipuri	msoLanguageIDManipuri
Maori	msoLanguageIDMaori
Marathi	msoLanguageIDMarathi
Mongolian	msoLanguageIDMongolian
Nepali	msoLanguageIDNepali
Nynorsk in Norway	msoLanguageIDNorwegianNynorsk
Oriya	msoLanguageIDOriya
Oromo	msoLanguageIDOromo
Pashto	msoLanguageIDPashto
Polish	msoLanguageIDPolish
Portuguese	msoLanguageIDPortuguese
Punjabi	msoLanguageIDPunjabi
Quechua in Bolivia	msoLanguageIDQuechuaBolivia
Quechua in Ecuador	msoLanguageIDQuechuaEcuador
Quechua in Peru	msoLanguageIDQuechuaPeru
Rhaeto-Romanic	msoLanguageIDRhaetoRomanic
Romanian	msoLanguageIDRomanian
Romanian in Moldova	msoLanguageIDRomanianMoldova
Russian	msoLanguageIDRussian
Russian in Moldova	msoLanguageIDRussianMoldova
Sami/Lappish	msoLanguageIDSamiLappish
Sanskrit	msoLanguageIDSanskrit
Sepedi	msoLanguageIDSepedi
Serbian/Cyrillic	msoLanguageIDSerbianCyrillic
Serbian/Latin	msoLanguageIDSerbianLatin
Sesotho	msoLanguageIDSesotho
Simplified Chinese	msoLanguageIDSimplifiedChinese
Sindhi	msoLanguageIDSindhi
Sindhi in Pakistan	msoLanguageIDSindhiPakistan
Sinhalese	msoLanguageIDSinhalese
Slovak	msoLanguageIDSlovak
Slovenian	msoLanguageIDSlovenian
Somali	msoLanguageIDSomali
Sorbian	msoLanguageIDSorbian
Spanish	msoLanguageIDSpanish
Spanish (Modern Sort)	msoLanguageIDSpanishModernSort
Spanish in Argentina	msoLanguageIDSpanishArgentina
Spanish in Bolivia	msoLanguageIDSpanishBolivia
Spanish in Chile	msoLanguageIDSpanishChile
Spanish in Colombia	msoLanguageIDSpanishColombia
Spanish in Costa Rica	msoLanguageIDSpanishCostaRica
Spanish in Ecuador	msoLanguageIDSpanishEcuador
Spanish in El Salvador	msoLanguageIDSpanishElSalvador
Spanish in Guatemala	msoLanguageIDSpanishGuatemala
Spanish in Honduras	msoLanguageIDSpanishHonduras
Spanish in Mexico	msoLanguageIDMexicanSpanish
Spanish in Nicaragua	msoLanguageIDSpanishNicaragua
Spanish in Panama	msoLanguageIDSpanishPanama
Spanish in Paraguay	msoLanguageIDSpanishParaguay
Spanish in Peru	msoLanguageIDSpanishPeru
Spanish in Puerto Rico	msoLanguageIDSpanishPuertoRico
Spanish in the Dominican Republic	msoLanguageIDSpanishDominicanRepublic
Spanish in Uruguay	msoLanguageIDSpanishUruguay
Spanish in Venezuela	msoLanguageIDSpanishVenezuela
Sutu	msoLanguageIDSutu
Swahili	msoLanguageIDSwahili
Swedish	msoLanguageIDSwedish
Swedish in Finland	msoLanguageIDSwedishFinland
Syriac	msoLanguageIDSyriac
Tajik	msoLanguageIDTajik
Tamazight	msoLanguageIDTamazight
Tamazight (Latin)	msoLanguageIDTamazightLatin
Tamil	msoLanguageIDTamil
Tatar	msoLanguageIDTatar
Telugu	msoLanguageIDTelugu
Thai	msoLanguageIDThai
Serbian Bosnia Herzegovina Cyrillic language	msoLanguageIDSerbianBosniaHerzegovinaCyrillic
Serbian Bosnia Herzegovina Latin language	msoLanguageIDSerbianBosniaHerzegovinaLatin
Tibetan	msoLanguageIDTibetan
Tigrigna in Eritrea	msoLanguageIDTigrignaEritrea
Tigrigna in Ethiopia	msoLanguageIDTigrignaEthiopic
Traditional Chinese	msoLanguageIDTraditionalChinese
Tsonga	msoLanguageIDTsonga
Tswana	msoLanguageIDTswana
Turkish	msoLanguageIDTurkish
Turkmen	msoLanguageIDTurkmen
Ukrainian	msoLanguageIDUkrainian
Urdu	msoLanguageIDUrdu
Uzbek (Cyrillic)	msoLanguageIDUzbekCyrillic
Uzbek (Latin)	msoLanguageIDUzbekLatin
Venda	msoLanguageIDVenda
Vietnamese	msoLanguageIDVietnamese
Welsh	msoLanguageIDWelsh
Xhosa	msoLanguageIDXhosa
Yi	msoLanguageIDYi
Yiddish	msoLanguageIDYiddish
Yoruba	msoLanguageIDYoruba
Zulu	msoLanguageIDZulu