How to make a bilingual version of PPT in Chinese and English, displaying it side by side page by page

Key points of this article

When you want to show it to an English audience while retaining the original Chinese meaning, choose bilingual output. The original text and the translated text will be presented side by side, making it easier to check than creating two separate files.
When only the English version is required for delivery to a foreign party, select only the translation output. The layout and charts will be retained, but the original Chinese text will no longer appear in the results.
Delete irrelevant remarks, check whether the text is selectable, and unify terminology before conversion, which can reduce translation errors and typesetting overflow.
After getting the results, check the numbers, proper nouns, chart labels and text page by page to see if they exceed the text box. Important content must be confirmed manually.

When preparing for an English speech, many people only have a Chinese PPT in their hands. It is of course possible to translate the entire text into English, but the speaker often has to check the original text to confirm the meaning, and the Chinese colleagues in the team also need to understand what has been changed on each page. At this time, a bilingual PPT in Chinese and English is more practical than a separate English version: you can see the original Chinese text and English translation on every page, and there is a basis for the speech, review and revision.

This article is written for people who need to make bilingual PPT, such as product managers who need to report to overseas teams, students preparing for English defense, and teachers who need to show training materials to readers in two languages at the same time. After reading, you will know when to choose bilingual comparison, when to choose English version, what preparations to make before switching, and how to check page by page after getting the results to avoid going to the stage with mistakes.

How to make bilingual PPT? One sentence conclusion

Let me talk about the conclusion first: If you need the original text and the translation to be compared page by page in the same document, choose bilingual comparison output; if it is only for English readers, choose translation only output. Both formats must be retained, and the difference lies in whether the results also contain the original Chinese text.

your situation	Recommended practices	reason
The speaker himself has to check the English expressions while reading	Bilingual comparison output	The original text and the translation are side by side and match sentence by sentence.
Both Chinese and British teams will review the same manuscript	Bilingual comparison output	People on both sides can understand the basis for modifications.
Only shown to overseas clients or external judges	Translation output only	The file is clean and does not expose the original Chinese text
The speech is very long and has many pages, so it needs to be reviewed in sections.	Bilingual comparison first, and then only the translated version will be published after review	It is easy to compare when reviewing, and then streamline it after finalizing it.
There are lots of charts and formulas in the slides	Try both and read the results page by page.	The layout is retained, but labels and numbers still need to be manually checked

Before you start: Confirm these points first

Before starting the conversion, take a few minutes to check the source files, which will save time than reworking after the conversion.

Whether the file format is .pptx. OmniDoc supports PowerPoint .pptx files. If you have an old version or another format, save it as .pptx in your desktop office software first, and then upload it.
Whether text can be selected. Click on a piece of text in the original PPT to select the text to indicate that it is translatable text; if the entire page is a picture, the text inside will not enter the translation as text and requires additional processing, such as typing in the text box again.
Delete irrelevant content. Notes, hidden pages, and draft pages of old versions will be processed together. Delete pages that don't need to appear in the bilingual version, and the result will be cleaner.
Unify proper nouns. Try to write the product name, person name, company name, and technical terms in the English form you want in the document first. When translation inconsistencies occur, the cost of revision increases with the number of pages.
Think of a good use. Whether it is for yourself, for team review, or for external readers, determines which output you choose, and also determines the strictness of the verification.

Steps to generate bilingual PPT in OmniDoc

The following steps apply to the omnidoc.top web page, and the process for the desktop client (download.omnidoc.top) is similar.

Open omnidoc.top, enter the document translation function, and select PowerPoint as the file type to upload.
Upload the prepared .pptx file and confirm that the file name and page number are consistent with your original manuscript.
Select the target language as English and the source language as the Chinese setting of the original.
Select bilingual comparison in the output mode so that the original text and the translated text are presented side by side. If you only want the English version, select Translation Only.
If your content belongs to a specific field, such as technology or business, you can select the corresponding type in the style options to make the terms and expressions more relevant to that field.
Submit the task and wait for processing to complete. It will take longer when there are more pages, so do not close the page during this period.
Download the generated file, open it first and look at the overall structure to confirm that each page has been generated.
Check the list in the next section page by page and modify it before reporting or sending.

# check item by item after completion

The results of machine translation need to be confirmed manually, especially in the bilingual version, where both languages appear at the same time, and errors and omissions are more likely to be ignored. The following check items are recommended to go through page by page.

Check item	What do you think?	What if there's a problem?
Number of pages and order	Compare the original manuscript to see if the number of pages is the same and the page order has not changed.	Page missing first check whether the original file has hidden pages that have been skipped, and then upload it again.
Numbers and units	Check the amount, date, percentage and model one by one	Correct it directly in the bilingual version and synchronize it to the translation version only
Proper noun	Check whether the product name, person name and technical word are unified.	Full-text search and replacement to ensure that there is only one way to write the same term
Whether the text overflowed	See if the English translation is out of the text box or truncated	Reduce the font size, or split the long sentence into two lines. English is usually longer than Chinese.
Charts and annotations	Check the text in axes, legends, and flowcharts	If the text in the chart is wrong, manually change it to the correct English mark.
Tone and expression	Read the translation again to see if it is like what native speakers can say.	Change the sentences used in the speech into colloquial short sentences

If the translation of a page is obviously inconsistent with the original meaning, do not just change that sentence, it is recommended to go back to the original context, and then uniformly revise the same expression.

# Core comparison

The two outputs of bilingual control and translation only are suitable for different scenarios, and the phased approach is to combine them. The following table is compared by purpose, advantage, and cost.

Practice	Suitable for the scene	Advantages and costs
Bilingual	Check by the speaker himself, revise within the team, and need to keep the revision record.	The source text and translation are side by side, easy to check sentence by sentence; the information of the document page is secret and is not suitable for direct projection to the external audience.
Translation only	Officially delivered to the outside world, the audience only reads English.	The page is simple and suitable for projection; you can't compare the original text in the same document. You need to go back to the Chinese version when you modify it.
Phased approach	There are a large number of pages and need to be revised by many people before being finalized.	First proofread in bilingual version, and then deliver the translated version only after finalization; keep the same glossary between the two steps to reduce inconsistencies

# which method is suitable for you?

If you are the speaker, the main purpose is to confirm the accuracy of the English expression and give priority to bilingual control. If you want to send the finished product to overseas customers or external judges, use the translated version directly and check it manually before delivery. If your team needs multiple people to review, it is recommended that you first use the bilingual version to complete the revision process, and then generate a translation-only version from the final content.

# frequently asked questions (FAQ)

1. I only want the English version, can you just choose the translation?

Sure. Only the output of the translation will retain the original layout, charts and pictures, but the original Chinese text will no longer be included in the result. Still check page by page according to the above list before delivery.

2. If the bilingual version is put on the projection, will the two languages be squeezed together?

There will be a certain sense of congestion because the source text and the translation appear at the same time. For live presentations, it is recommended to confirm the content in the revision version, and then use the translation-only projection, or use the bilingual version as a spare speech during the speech.

3. Can the picture text in the slide be translated?

If the text is saved as text in PPT, it can be processed; if it is a screenshot or a full-page picture, the text will not appear as editable text. In this case, the safe way is to re-type the key text in the text box and upload it.

4. Can the translation results be directly used in formal occasions?

The results of machine translation are suitable for first drafts, especially those related to numbers, legal provisions, medical care or contracts, and must be reviewed by people who understand the profession. Before using it in formal occasions, please make sure that all important contents have been checked manually.

5. English is longer than Chinese. Will typesetting be messy?

English sentences are usually longer than Chinese, and it is easy for the text to exceed the text box. When you encounter this problem, you can reduce the font size, break it into multiple lines, or simplify the sentence to keep the information on each page clear.

# Summary

The key to making the Chinese PPT into a Chinese-English bilingual version is to choose the right output mode first: if you need to compare page by page, choose bilingual control, and choose only translation for English readers. Clean up the page before conversion, unify the terminology, get the results and check the overflow of numbers, nouns and text page by page, and you can get a safe translation of PPT into English.

Open OmniDoc, upload the document and start translation.