AI-powered auto-translate Google Slides presentation to any language with Gemini

💬🗂️🤖 This workflow automates the translation of Google Slides presentations from any languages, while preserving the original formatting and slide structure. It leverages Google APIs, AI translation (Gemini/PaLM), and modular execution for high flexibility and accuracy.

DISCLAIMER: texts are split by Google Slides APIs into small blocks, so the translation will not always be contextualized.

Key Benefits

• ⚡ Time-Saving: Automates a typically manual and error-prone task of translating slides.
• 🌍 AI-Powered Accuracy: Uses Google Gemini to provide context-aware translations while respecting defined rules.
• 🔒 Safe & Non-Destructive: The original presentation is never modified — a new copy is always created.
• 🎯 Precision: Skips irrelevant text (e.g., emails, URLs, names) to avoid mistranslation.
• 🔁 Modular & Scalable: Uses subworkflows and batching, ideal for presentations with many slides.
• 🎨 Layout Preservation: Keeps the original design and formatting intact.

How it Works

1. Initialization:

   • The workflow starts with a manual trigger ("When clicking ‘Execute workflow’").
   • Set the language to translate (IMPORTANT format ISO-639)
   • It duplicates a specified Google Slides presentation ("Duplicate presentation") to create a new copy for translation, preserving the original.

2. Slide Processing:

   • The workflow retrieves slides from the copied presentation ("Get slides from a presentation") and processes them in batches ("Loop Over Items").
   • For each slide, text content is extracted ("Extract Text") using a custom JavaScript snippet, which identifies and collects text elements while retaining the slide's objectId.

3. Translation:

   • The extracted texts are passed to a LangChain agent ("Translation expert"), which translates the content from Italian to English. The agent follows strict guidelines (e.g., skipping URLs, brand names, etc.).
   • The translated text is sent to the "Translate Google Slides" node, which replaces the original text in the presentation using the slide's objectId for targeting.

4. Execution Flow:

   • The workflow includes delays ("Wait 10 sec" and "Wait 3 sec") to manage API rate limits and ensure smooth execution.
   • The process repeats for each batch of slides until all content is translated.

Set Up Steps

1. Prerequisites:

   • Ensure access to the source Google Slides presentation (specified by fileId in "Duplicate presentation").
   • Set up Google OAuth2 credentials for Google Drive and Slides (nodes reference credentials like "Google Slides account").
   • Configure the Google Gemini (PaLM) API credentials for the translation agent.

2. Configuration:

   • Update the fileId in the "Duplicate presentation" node to point to your source presentation.
   • Adjust the translation guidelines in the "Translation expert" node if needed (e.g., language pairs or exclusion rules).
   • Modify batch sizes or wait times (e.g., "Wait 10 sec") based on API constraints.

3. Execution:

   • Run the workflow manually or trigger it via the "Execute Workflow" node from another workflow.
   • Monitor progress in n8n’s execution log, as each slide is processed and translated sequentially.

4. Output:

   • The translated presentation is saved as a new file in Google Drive, with the filename including a timestamp (e.g., NAME_PRESENTATION_{lang}_{timestamp}).

Note: The workflow is currently inactive ("active": false); enable it after configuration.

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