MATLAB report generator - Microsoft word header/footer 'Link to Previous' Section

Hello,

I want to create a Microsoft word report . The first few pages are written directly from another program. The next pages are written from MATLAB based on word template already saved. I need the page headers and footers continued from the previous section. I was unable to find something which is similar to 'Link to Previous' as in word. Can someone help?

Answer 1

[Gayathri]

Hi @HORMIS,

For appending data to an existing word, we can use the MATLAB's ActiveX interface. This will automatically get continued with the existing headers and footers.

Start by creating a Word ActiveX server and opening your template document. Please find the below code for using the Word ActiveX interface.

% Start an ActiveX session with Word
wordApp = actxserver('Word.Application');
wordApp.Visible = true;  % Make Word visible for debugging

% Open the existing Word document
docPath = 'path\new1.docx';
doc = wordApp.Documents.Open(docPath);

% Move to the end of the document
selection = wordApp.Selection;
wdStory = 6;  % The numeric value for wdStory
selection.EndKey(wdStory);

% Insert a section break (next page)
wdSectionBreakNextPage = 2;  % The numeric value for wdSectionBreakNextPage
selection.InsertBreak(wdSectionBreakNextPage);

% Add new content after the section break
selection.TypeText('This is a new paragraph added after a section break.');
selection.TypeParagraph; % Add a new paragraph break

% Add a table (example with 2 rows and 2 columns)
selection.Tables.Add(selection.Range, 2, 2);
table = selection.Tables.Item(1);
table.Cell(1, 1).Range.Text = 'Header 1';
table.Cell(1, 2).Range.Text = 'Header 2';
table.Cell(2, 1).Range.Text = 'Row 1 Col 1';
table.Cell(2, 2).Range.Text = 'Row 1 Col 2';

% Save and close the document
doc.Save();
doc.Close(false);
wordApp.Quit;

For more information on “actxserver”, please refer to the following link.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2021b/matlab/ref/actxserver.html

Hope you find this information helpful.

[HORMIS]

HI @Gayatri,

Thank you for the answer. It is useful.

I have written most of the chapters,figures,tables using mlreportgen.report and mlreportgen.dom and lately found that new sections added doesnt continue the header texts from previous chapters.

Is there something can be done using the current code i have or need to completely rewrite using actxserver.

Here is a sample first page.

% Report container

import mlreportgen.report.*

import mlreportgen.dom.*

%Open the report template

rpt = Report('trial','docx','Report_Template.dotx');

open(rpt)

%Moving to the hole

while ~strcmp(rpt.Document.CurrentHoleId, 'Tool2report')

moveToNextHole(rpt.Document);

end

%Adding template chapter

ch1=Tool2report.Chapter();

ch1.Title = 'Introduction';

sec1 = Section;

sec1.Title = 'This data has been generated using version 1.0';

para = Paragraph(['This reporting tool will process all the current results from the tool']);

add(sec1,para);

sec2=Section;

sec2.Title = 'Naming Convention';

aa=Paragraph('Tells the naming convention used in the models');

add(sec2,aa);

add(ch1,sec1);

add(ch1,sec2);

add(rpt,ch1);

% to continue the page number from the previous page

rpt.Document.CurrentPageLayout.FirstPageNumber=[];

warning ('off','all')

close(rpt)

rptview(rpt)

[HORMIS]

I have solved the issue by updating my template, removing the section breaks.

[Gayathri]

@HORMIS,Thank you for letting know the changes that led to resolvement of the issue.