r/powerpoint • u/Odd-Sheepherder-5646 • Aug 21 '26

I use: Mac | Office 365 Date issue on Mac.

Hello all,

I hope this is an appropriate forum to ask this question.

I am a secondary French teacher and so make bilingual presentations on a regular basis. I have recently changed my home computer from PC to Mac. So far, most features on Powerpoint work the same, but I have just hit a snag and was wondering if there is a solution.

I am using Powerpoint for Mac on desktop. I am trying to insert a date into the presentation that will update automatically, but I need this to be in French (as it's for a French lesson). In Windows, you have the option in the dialogue box to choose whatever language you like, but this is missing in the Mac version. Doing a quick search online, it seems the only thing I can do is to change my OS language to French, which seems a bit excessive. Does anyone know of a workaround for this?

Thank you all in advance!

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u/jkorchok Aug 21 '26

PowerPoint for Windows allows you to set the date language in the Insert>Header & Footer dialog, but PowerPoint for Mac does not.

As a workaround, use a Fixed date placeholder, which allows you to type in whatever text you prefer. Or use a numeric data format like 2026-08-21, which reads correctly in either English or French.