How can I import data from a Text Box in an Excel Spreadsheet into Matlab?

I have used an excel template to create many instances of an excel spreadsheet which contains data in a text box. How can I import this data into Matlab? For example, how would I import "Hello World!" in this illustration? I have tried using xlsread to no avail.

Thanks!

[Walter Roberson]

You would probably have to use actxserver to talk to Excel to request the information.

Answer 1

[Jeremie Lagarde]

Following Walter Roberson's suggestion, I wrote a function which uses actxserver to solve this problem:

function myText=getTextFromExcelTextBox(filename,sheetname,textboxnmbr)

exl=actxserver('excel.application');
exlWkbk=exl.Workbooks;
exlFile=exlWkbk.Open(filename);
myExlSheet = exlFile.Sheets.Item(sheetname);
myText=myExlSheet.Shapes.Item(textboxnmbr).TextFrame.Characters.Text;

end