Dec 09, 2014
One limitation of PowerPoint is that you can only change the Spell Check Language for a one text box at a time; there is no way to set it for the entire presentation. This means that if you have a PowerPoint presentation created in the U.S. but you want the English to be Australian, you will need to change the spell check language for each text box individually. This can be frustrating and time consuming. Fortunately, a simple macro will help us get around this little problem. Here’s how to do it. Part 1: Create the macro- Show the Developer tab in the Ribbon: go to File > Options > Customise Ribbon and in the right hand panel put a tick in the check box next to Developer. (For 2007 users click the Start button > Power Point Options > Popular and tick Show Developer Tab in Ribbon.)
- Click the Visual Basic Button on the Developer tab to go to the VBA editor.
- In the VBA editor, click on the Insert menu and select Module to insert a new empty code module.
- Type or paste the following code into the code panel (main section on the right): Option Explicit Public Sub ChangeSpellCheckLanguage() Dim nSlideCount As Integer Dim nShapeCount As Integer Dim nSlides As Integer Dim nShapes As Integer 'Find out how many slides there are in the presentation nSlides = ActivePresentation.Slides.Count 'Loop through all the slides For nSlideCount = 1 To nSlides 'Find out how many shapes there are so identify all the text boxes nShapes = ActivePresentation.Slides(nSlideCount).Shapes.Count 'Loop through all the shapes on that slide changing the language option For nShapeCount = 1 To nShapes If ActivePresentation.Slides(nSlideCount).Shapes(nShapeCount).HasTextFrame Then ActivePresentation.Slides(nSlideCount).Shapes(nShapeCount) _ .TextFrame.TextRange.LanguageID = msoLanguageIDEnglishAUS End If Next nShapeCount Next nSlideCount End Sub
- In this example, we have set the language to English Australia. To change this to another language replace msoLanguageIDEnglishAUS with the desired language. The full list of languages can be found on this website.
- To run the macro, go to the Developer tab, click Macros, select ChangeSpellCheckLanguage and click Run. After that, all text elements within the presentation will have changed to use the new spelling language stipulated.
- Save your changes, but be aware that regular PowerPoint files (.pptx) cannot contain macros so you will need to save as a PowerPoint Macro-Enabled (.pptm) file. To do this click File, Save As and select PowerPoint Macro-Enabled Presentation from the Files of Type dropdown, give it a sensible name and click Save.
- Go to the Quick Access Toolbar (small toolbar at the very top of the application) and click on the drop down to the right of it. Select More Commands.
- The Customise dialog will open. Where it says Choose Commands From: change the selection from Popular Commands to Macros. Then select your Macro and click the Add The macro should appear in the panel on the left.
- Click the Modify button to give it a different icon and description, then click OK to save your changes. Your selected icon will now appear on the Quick Access Toolbar and you can click on it to run your macro.
- Press Alt+F11 to go back to the VBA editor. After the end of the previous code, type or paste the following: Sub Auto_Open() Dim oToolbar As CommandBar Dim oButton As CommandBarButton Dim MyToolbar As String MyToolbar = "More Tools" On Error Resume Next ' Create the toolbar Set oToolbar = CommandBars.Add(Name:=MyToolbar, _ Position:=msoBarFloating, Temporary:=True) If Err.Number <> 0 Then ' The toolbar's already there, so we have nothing to do Exit Sub End If On Error GoTo ErrorHandler 'Add a button to the new toolbar Set oButton = oToolbar.Controls.Add(Type:=msoControlButton) ' Set the button's properties With oButton .DescriptionText = "Change Spell Check Language" .Caption = "Change Spell Check Language" .OnAction = "ChangeSpellCheckLanguage" 'Runs the code to change language .Style = msoButtonIcon .FaceId = 643 'Chooses icon #0643 POW, change to 59 for a smiley face End With oToolbar.Visible = True NormalExit: Exit Sub ErrorHandler: MsgBox Err.Number & vbCrLf & Err.Description Resume NormalExit: End Sub
- Once you've added the code above and perhaps tested that it doesn’t have any errors, save your work as a PowerPoint Macro-Enabled (.pptm) file. In the next step we will be saving it as an add-in (.ppam) file, but PPAM files CANNOT be edited, so it is very important you have a PPTM version in case you need to edit your macro later
- To create the add-in, delete all the slides and then choose File, Save As and pick PowerPoint Add-In (*.ppam) from the Files of Type dropdown listbox. Give it a sensible name and save.
- You now have a new PowerPoint Add-in. Until you load it into PowerPoint, it's not going to do you much good, so the next step is to Load the Add-in.To load the add-in in PowerPoint 2007:
- Click the Office Button, click PowerPoint Options and then click Add-ins.
- Next to Manage: choose PowerPoint Add-Ins then click Go.
- Click Add New and browse to your add-in.
- Click the File tab, click Options and then click Add-ins.
- Next to Manage: choose PowerPoint Add-Ins then click Go.
- Click Add New and browse to your add-in.
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