OfficeMatlabCookbook

For those times when you just need to create a chart in Office from Matlab. It goes without saying that this will only work on Win32/Win64 systems. The COM automation server is mostly a wrapper for the VBA settings in Office. Many thanks to [Mathworks Support].(http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/99150-is-there-an-example-of-using-matlab-to-create-powerpoint-slides) and to MSDN.

Powerpoint

Initiating a Powerpobject.

   h = actxserver('PowerPoint.Application')
   h.Visible = 1;

By making the powerpoint application visible, it's significantly easier to figure out what's going on.

Poking around - Initial Setup

The invoke command allows you to see what functions you can use with a given object.

>> h.Presentations.invoke
	Item = handle Item(handle, Variant)
	Add = handle Add(handle, Variant(Optional))
	Open = handle Open(handle, string, Variant(Optional))
	CheckOut = void CheckOut(handle, string)
	CanCheckOut = bool CanCheckOut(handle, string)
	Open2007 = handle Open2007(handle, string, Variant(Optional))

Unless files need to be opened, most of the time, you will be working with the Presentation.Add method.

deck=h.Presentations.Add
  

If you need to open a file, keep in mind that the open method will open by default in the My-documents folder and if you get a InvokeError stating that PowerPoint could not open the file, you probably forgot to specify the path.

filename_path=strcat(pwd,'\',filename)
h.Presentations.Open(filename_path)

Adding Slides

In Office 2003 the com automation server predefined layout templates

Slide1 = deck.Slides.Add(1,'ppLayoutBlank')
Slide2 = deck.Slides.Add(2,'ppLayoutBlank')

In office 2007 an AddSlide method made in the form of Addslide(numberofslides,layout) was introduced. layout has to be pulled from the slide master templates

>> deck.SlideMaster.CustomLayouts.Item(2).Name
ans =
Title Slide

>>layout = deck.SlideMaster.CustomLayouts.Item(2);
>> Slide1 = deck.Slides.AddSlide(1,layout);

If this works, you should see a new slide pop in your powerpoint window.

Most of the time you will want to add a slide after the current slide which necessitates the use of deck.Slides.Count

Working with Slides

There are two schools of thought around Powerpoint, you can manually build each individual slide and position them, or you can apply formatting to individual templates.

Absolute Positioning

Most AddObject Functions take a series of (left edge, top edge, width, height)

>>text=Slide1.Shapes.AddTextbox('msoTextOrientationHOrizontal',300,100, 400,400)
>>text.TextFrame.TextRange.Text='Testing text'

Inserting VBA Charts

While most times you will be ok with a picture of the chart, sometimes there needs to be a dynamic chart

>>>chart1=Slide1.Shapes.AddChart(Type, Left, Top, Width, Height)
chart1 =
	Interface.Microsoft_PowerPoint_14.0_Object_Library.Shape

This is the default chart, invoke .Chart.ChartData in order to modify existing chart data

Changing Chart Titles

Formatting is a bit painful with the VBA object model as there are multiple levels of abstraction. To change the title of a slide for example

chart1.Chart.ChartTitle.Text= 'sometext'

To change the format of the text in the chart itself (for example the axes), is just as involved.

chart1.Chart.ChartArea.Format.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Size=size

Saving the Presentation

Presentation.SaveAs('C:\...\ExamplePresentation.ppt')
h.quit
h.delete

Deleting the server object is important as this will prevent memory issues the next time you use this.

Excel

For Excel, rather than presentations, you would call them workbooks

Initiating a Workbook

   h = actxserver('Excel.Application')
   h.Visible = 1;

Poking Around

...

h.Workbooks.invoke Add = handle Add(handle, Variant(Optional)) Close = void Close(handle) Item = handle Item(handle, Variant) Open = handle Open(handle, string, Variant(Optional)) OpenText = void OpenText(handle, string, Variant(Optional)) OpenDatabase = handle OpenDatabase(handle, string, Variant(Optional)) CheckOut = void CheckOut(handle, string) CanCheckOut = bool CanCheckOut(handle, string) OpenXML = handle OpenXML(handle, string, Variant(Optional)) ...

Create a new workbook

>> work=h.Workbooks.Add
 
work =
 
	Interface.Microsoft_Excel_14.0_Object_Library._Workbook
  

Navigating and doing things in workbooks

You should setup a range variable in order to get Matlab to be able to work with individual cells in matlab. ...

Cursor=activesheet.Range('A1');

Cursor =

Interface.Microsoft_Excel_14.0_Object_Library.Range

Cursor.Formula=1

Cursor =

Interface.Microsoft_Excel_14.0_Object_Library.Range

...

Running VBA through Workbooks

Macros are run at the excel application level (so whatever variable that is assigned to Excel.Application activex server ... h.Run('Macroname') ...