Create and fill in a table in Microsoft Word with Actx Server from MATLAB

Hello,

I want to create a table and fill it with variables in Microsoft Word with the Actx Server from MATLAB. I searched a lot but couldn't find a solution.

I also tried some available functions (toTable.m, table2word.m,..) but they didn't work at all.

It would be great if somebody could show me how to create the following table:

The table should have 7 rows and 2 coloums. Another thing i'd like to know is how to merge or divide cells in this table.

I am using Word 2013 and MATLAB R2011b.

Thank you in advance!

[TAB]

Atleast show us some code/effort to open ActiveX server connection and open word your file. Please don't expect fully working code from scratch.

[ABCD]

I'm able to open word and fill it with variables. The only thing i'd like to get is the code for the table, because i can't find a way to "translate" VBA to MATLAB Actx syntax.

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

Here is part of some code I wrote several years ago that adds a long table to an existing word document. The word table was filled from the content of a matlab table (filt_pres). There's a lot of stuff there that is of no interest to you but it shows how to:

• add a table
• merge cells
• fill the table with text
• change the style of the text (using styles already defined in the document)

word = actxserver('Word.Application');
word.Visible = true;
wdoc = word.Documents.Open(docname);
Selection = word.Selection;

Selection.InsertBreak(5); %5 is wdSectionBreakOddPage
Selection.MoveLeft(1, 1);  %1 is wdCharacter
%Create table and format properly. The format of the table is:
%             Contents
%             Session 1
%  paper 1              |  page ref
%  ...                  |  ...
%  paper n              |  page ref
%             Session 2
%  paper 1              |  page ref
%  ...
%Hence the table has 2 columns and 1 (contents) + number of papers + number of sessions rows
table = Selection.Tables.Add(Selection.Range, 1 + height(filt_pres) + numel(unique(strcat(filt_pres.Topic, num2str(filt_pres.TopicNumber)))), 2);
table.Columns.Item(1).SetWidth(400, 3);
table.Rows.AllowBreakAcrossPages = false;

%First row of table is the header. Just one cell with 'Contents' with the TOC Title style
table.Rows.Item(1).Cells.Merge;
table.Rows.Item(1).Range.Select;
Selection.Style = wdoc.Styles.Item('TOC Title');
Selection.TypeText('Contents');

%Now fill the session and paper rows
lasttopic = '';    
lastnumber = 0;
%if the topic name or number of the current paper is different from lasttopic, it's the start of a new session
tablerow = 1;  %to keep track of which is being fillef
for row = 1:height(filt_pres)
    tablerow = tablerow + 1;
    newtopic = filt_pres.Topic{row};
    newnumber = filt_pres.TopicNumber(row);
    if ~(strcmp(newtopic, lasttopic) && newnumber == lastnumber)
        %start of a new session. Change row to a session row by merging the two columns and setting the style to TOC Topic
        lasttopic = newtopic;
        lastnumber = newnumber;
        table.Rows.Item(tablerow).Cells.Merge;
        table.Rows.Item(tablerow).Range.Select;
        Selection.Style = wdoc.Styles.Item('TOC Topic');
        Selection.TypeText(sprintf('%s %d', lasttopic, lastnumber));
        tablerow = tablerow + 1;
    end
    %fill row with paper and reference. Paper cell is made of two lines with two different styles
    %first line is paper title. second line is paper authors. 
    table.Cell(tablerow, 1).Range.Select
    Selection.Style = wdoc.Styles.Item('TOC Paper Title');
    Selection.TypeText(filt_pres{row, 5}{1}); %row 5 is title
    Selection.TypeText(char(10));
    Selection.Style = wdoc.Styles.Item('TOC Paper Authors');
    authors = filt_pres{row, 6}{1};
    authors = regexprep(authors, '\n.*', '');  %remove affiliations
    authors = regexprep(authors, '\s*\([^)]*\)\s*', ''); %remove affiliations references
    Selection.TypeText(authors);
    Selection.Font.Italic = false;
    table.Cell(tablerow, 2).Range.Select
    Selection.Style = wdoc.Styles.Item('TOC Paper Page');
    Selection.TypeText('');
    Selection.InsertCrossReference(2, 7, strrep(filt_pres.Reference{row}, '-', ''), true); %2 is wdRefTypeBookmark, 7 is wdPageNumber, true for hyperlink    
end

[ABCD]

That's what i've been looking for. Thank you!

[ZM]

Milutin

The presented script tabulates the <filt_pres> data which I cannot find. Could someone provide it, or instruct where to search for.

Thank you in advance.

[Guillaume]

No idea, what milutin means.

The filt_pres table is proprietary data, which is not available anywhere and which I will certainly not make available. The above was provided so that the OP could understand how to insert and format tables in Word documents, the actual content of filt_pres is irrelevant for that, you can make it up if you wish.

[ZM]

Thanks for the reply.

Sorry, I had no idea that filt_pres table is proprietary data, sorry. I thought that it is within Matlab package and I am short of skills to find it.

Milutin = my nick name, used with intention to appear in the comment as identification, instead of ZM. I am commenting/asking for the assistance for the first time, so did not know the style.

[SyakiRontos]

Thank you for your code. It's very helpful.

One question, how can I merge two columns in the same row instead of merging the whole columns?

[Guillaume]

You'd do it this way:

%wtable: a word table object
%rowidx: scalar, the row on which the two cells to merge are. 1-based 
%colidx: two element array, the two columns to merge on the row. 1-based
trow = wtable.Rows.Item(rowidx);
trow.Cells.Item(colidx(1)).Merge(trow.Cells.Item(colidx(2)))

[SyakiRontos]

Thanks.. It works!

[lydie Nsangou]

please is it possible to insert a table from matlab to word with actxserver?

[Guillaume]

>>please is it possible to insert a table from matlab to word with actxserver?

Well, yes, that's what my example does

[Shivam Mishra]

How to change background color of table made in PPT through actxserver.

h = actxserver('PowerPoint.Application')

h.Visible = 1;

%% ADD PRESENTATION

h.Presentation.invoke

Presentation = h.Presentation.Add

Presentation.Slides.invoke

blankSlide = Presentation.SlideMaster.CustomLayouts.Item(1);

Slide1 = Presentation.Slides.AddSlide(1,blankSlide);

%% ADD TABLE

table = invoke(Slide1.Shapes, 'AddTable',8, 2);

table.Table.Cell(1,1).Shape.TextFrame.TextRange.Text = 'Name';