Cannot change Microsoft Powerpoint 2016 language!!!

Question

I am not able to change the language from French (Canada), to English (Canada) in Powerpoint 2016! I have tried multiple times with the steps given to me by google and Microsoft but nothing has worked. Please help a.s.a.p! Thank you.

Answer 1

First of all, open System Preferences>Keyboard>Input Sources and make sure you have a French Canadian keyboard. Click the plus sign to install one if you don't.

Then activate the French Input at the right end of the OS X menu, so you see a Canadian flag. PowerPoint may switch languages to Canadian French automatically when you do this.

If not, it's because your PowerPoint template was formatted in a different language. While you can activate French by clicking on each text placeholder and using Tools>Language to change it to French, it's much quicker to set the default language to French temporarily. Make sure no placeholders are selected, choose Tools>Language>French (Canada) and click on the Default button. PowerPoint will ask whether you want to switch, choose Yes.

Answer 2

The root problem with MS Office is that the [foreign-language-challenged American] Microsoft designers do not understand realities of multi-lingual people and their work.

Connecting User Interface language selection and keyboard layout and language used for writing is not a good solution as many languages can be written without selecting that language's "own" keyboard. For example, letter Z and Y in the German keyboard have changed places and that makes at least occasional writing with the German keyboard clumsy.

For example, Finnish or Swedish keyboard work fine for English and pretty well for German as well ("β" can be replaced by "ss"). Same is true for using Russian Cyrillic keyboard for Bulgarian.

It is ridiculous that MS PowerPoint still lacks simple commands to change the language of all or selected slides and define, which language will be used in all new slides, no matter the templates used.

Answer 3

The UserVoice forum is the place to make feature requests and suggestions. It appears that a similar feature request has already been made. You can vote for it and comment on it in UserVoice (that's the forum that Microsoft moderates - this one is user-to-user). If this is not exactly your suggestion you are invited to make a suggestion. As you point out, the Microsoft developers are not skillful in multiple languages, so you'll have to word your request in a way that is specific enough so that someone without your skills will be able to understand exactly how you want things to be.

Fix Language setting issues and User experience

Answer 4

Unless you tell us exactly what it is that you want to change & what steps you've tried as well as their results it's difficult to know what else to suggest :-) This is some general information but if you provide sufficient details someone should be able to help.

Are you referring to the UI Language of menus & dialog windows? That's controlled by your OS X System Preferences for Language & Region.

Do you mean set the Default Language for text in new presentations? That's handled by way of the Default button in Tools> Language.

Or are you trying to change the Language of text in existing presentations? There is no provision for changing the overall Language used in a presentation. The text on each slide has to be selected & changed.

It would also be good to know what your present update level of Office is as well as which version of OS X you're using.