Google Slides Translator Skill

Expert in translating Google Slides presentations to different languages while preserving all formatting, styles, and layout.

Core Capabilities

• Translate entire presentations or specific slide ranges
• Auto-detect source language
• Preserve all formatting, styles, colors, and layout
• In-place translation (updates original presentation)
• Support for 100+ languages via Google Cloud Translation API

When to Use This Skill

Use when users request:

• "Translate this Google Slides presentation to French"
• "Translate slides 10 to 15 to Spanish"
• "Convert this presentation to German"
• "Translate slides 1,5,10 to Italian"

Quick Start

Basic Command Pattern

~/.claude/skills/google-slides-translator/scripts/run.sh translate_slides <presentation_id> <slide_range> <target_lang>

Common Examples

# Translate all slides to French
~/.claude/skills/google-slides-translator/scripts/run.sh translate_slides 1abc123xyz all fr

# Translate slides 10-15 to Spanish
~/.claude/skills/google-slides-translator/scripts/run.sh translate_slides 1abc123xyz 10-15 es

# Translate specific slides to German
~/.claude/skills/google-slides-translator/scripts/run.sh translate_slides 1abc123xyz 1,5,10 de

Slide Range Formats

• all - All slides in presentation
• 5 - Only slide 5
• 10-15 - Slides 10 through 15
• 1,3,5 - Slides 1, 3, and 5
• 2-4,6-8 - Multiple ranges (slides 2-4 and 6-8)

Common Language Codes

For complete list, see: references/language-codes.md

How It Works

The run.sh script automatically:

1. Creates isolated virtual environment (.venv)
2. Installs dependencies via uv
3. Authenticates with Google APIs (OAuth 2.0)
4. Fetches presentation structure
5. Auto-detects source language
6. Translates text using Cloud Translation API
7. Updates presentation in-place with replaceAllText (preserves formatting)
8. Reports progress and statistics

No manual setup required - just run the script.

Prerequisites

System Requirements

• uv - Python package manager (https://docs.astral.sh/uv/)
• GCP Project with Translation API enabled
• OAuth credentials in ~/.claude/credentials/google_credentials.json

Quick Setup

# Enable required APIs
gcloud services enable slides.googleapis.com translate.googleapis.com

# Create credentials directory
mkdir -p ~/.claude/credentials

# Download OAuth credentials from Google Cloud Console
# Save to ~/.claude/credentials/google_credentials.json

First run opens browser for OAuth consent. Token saved for future use.

See references/authentication.md for detailed setup.

Translation Workflow

When users request translation:

1. Extract presentation ID from URL

   • URL: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1abc123xyz/edit
   • ID: 1abc123xyz

2. Determine slide range

   • "All slides" → all
   • "Slides 10 to 15" → 10-15
   • "Slide 5" → 5
   • "Slides 1, 3, 5" → 1,3,5

3. Identify target language (2-letter code)

4. Execute translation

   bashCopy

   ~/.claude/skills/google-slides-translator/scripts/run.sh translate_slides <id> <range> <lang>
   

5. Monitor output and report results

Example Interaction

User: "Translate this Google Slides to French: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1abc123xyz/edit"

Response:

I'll translate your Google Slides presentation to French.

Presentation ID: 1abc123xyz
Target Language: French (fr)
Slides: All

Running translation...

Execute:

~/.claude/skills/google-slides-translator/scripts/run.sh translate_slides 1abc123xyz all fr

Report:

✅ Translation complete!

Summary:
- Slides translated: 25/25
- Text elements updated: 150
- Target language: French

Your presentation has been successfully translated to French.
All formatting, styles, and layout have been preserved.

Best Practices

• Backup first: Make a copy before translating (in-place updates)
• Monitor output: Watch for progress and error messages
• Check formatting: Review slides after translation
• API quotas: Be mindful of Google Cloud Translation API limits

What Gets Preserved

Using replaceAllText API preserves:

• Text formatting (bold, italic, underline)
• Font families and sizes
• Colors and backgrounds
• Text alignment and spacing
• Hyperlinks and special characters

Limitations

• Text only: Images with text not OCR'd
• No tables: Table content not translated
• In-place: Updates original (no copy created)
• Sequential: Processes slides one at a time

Reference Documentation

• script-usage.md - Complete command reference, all arguments, slide range patterns
• authentication.md - Google OAuth setup, credentials, first-time auth flow
• workflows.md - Detailed translation workflows, batch processing, examples
• language-codes.md - Complete list of 100+ supported language codes
• troubleshooting.md - Common errors, authentication issues, quota problems

Quick Troubleshooting

"Google OAuth credentials not found"

mkdir -p ~/.claude/credentials
# Download from Google Cloud Console and save to:
# ~/.claude/credentials/google_credentials.json

"Permission denied"

gcloud services enable slides.googleapis.com translate.googleapis.com

"Presentation not found"

• Verify presentation ID from URL
• Check you have view/edit access

"uv not found"

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

For detailed troubleshooting, see: references/troubleshooting.md