How Can I Access Individual Powerpoint Shapes from a collection; actxserver COM objects

Hello All,

First time question asker!

I am trying to access multiple shapes (Title and Subtitle) one at a time in order to edit them in a PowerPoint presentation through the actxserver. However the collection of shapes does not seem to let me access the individual shapes - I have tried using indexing to access a specific shape but get the obvious index error below:

Index exceeds matrix dimensions.

I have read that accessing collections in MATLAB is a known issue, however I did not manage to find any solution - I am assuming it will involve the get command but I'm afraid I just haven't cracked it yet.

My code is as such:

%%Start an ActiveX session with PowerPoint:
ppt         = actxserver('PowerPoint.Application');
ppt.Visible = 1;
pres        = ppt.Presentations.Add;

% Apply Template
invoke(pres,'ApplyTemplate', template);

% Title Slide
title_slide = invoke(pres.Slides,'Add',1,1);

% This section works but only gives me access to the main title
title_shapes = get(title_slide.Shapes);  
title        = get(title_shapes.Title);
set(title.TextFrame.TextRange,'Text',main);

% When I try with the following line the error above is generated.
title_shape = get(title_slide.Shapes(1));

The rest of the code is not written (this is WIP) and the function is finished with the usual

% Quit PowerPoint
invoke(ppt,'Quit');
% End process
delete(ppt);
clear ppt pres;

The first slide invoked is a 'title' slide (containing title & subtitle). The template is simply a file with our company logo and not important. I am using MATLAB 2014a, and PowerPoint 2010.

If anyone can offer any advice/direction on how to access the shape it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Andy

Answer 1

[Andy L]

Solved it!

Individual Shapes from the Shapes collection are accessed as Items. For a collection of two shapes (title and subtitle) I used the following code.

title_slide = invoke( pres.Slides,'Add',1,1   ); % Add Title Slide
title       = get( title_slide.Shapes.Item(1) ); % Get Handle to title shape
subtitle    = get( title_slide.Shapes.Item(2) ); % Get Handle to subtitle shape

set(title.TextFrame.TextRange   ,'Text','Title'   );  % Set Title Text to 'Title'
set(subtitle.TextFrame.TextRange,'Text','Subtitle');  % Set Subtitle Text to 'Subitle'

[Ivan]

Thanks! Same can be used by predefined slides:

h = actxserver('PowerPoint.Application');
Presentation = h.Presentation.Open('YourPresentation.pptx');
Slide1 = Presentation.Slides.Item(1);