How to run a Power Point Macro from MATLAB?

I have a pre-existing Power-Point which contains a macro that I would like to run from my matlab program. I am trying to find an analogous command in Power-Point to one that I once used when callling a macro in excel, 'ExecuteExcel4Macro'. Are there any recommendations?

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

It should be as simple as:

powerpoint = actxserver('Powerpoint.Application');
%if you want to see the powerpoint window:
%powerpoint.Visible = true;
presentation = powerpoint.Presentations.Open('C:\somewhere\somepptfile.ppt');
powerpoint.Run('NameOfTheMacro')
%... later on
powerpoint.Quit;

[Alberto]

Thank you! When I try to run that code, I receive the following error: 'No method 'Run' with maching signature foung for class 'COM.PowerPoint_Application'.' Do you have any advise regarding that error?

[Guillaume]

Oops sorry, I didn't pay enough attention, the parameter argument to Run is not optional. So,

powerpoint.Run('NameOfTheMacro', []);  %assuming your macro doesn't have input arguments.

[Alberto]

Thanks again for your reply. After making the changes suggested by you, I now receive the following error:

Error using COM.PowerPoint_Application/RUn

Invoke Error, Dispatch Exception:

Source: Microsoft Power Point 20016

Description: Application.Run : Invalind request. Sub or function not defined.

Help File:

Help Contect ID: 0

I have a macro inside a pre-existing poower point which has no input parameters. The Sub function is called Add2PowerPoint(). Do you have an idea of what the problem is?

[Guillaume]

As it sort of explains in the documentation of Run (link above), you have to put the name of the presentation before the macro name (separated by a !). Possibly you also need the module name:

powerpoint.Run('FileName.pptm!Add2PowerPoint', [])
%or
powerpoint.Run('FileName.pptm!modulename.Add2PowerPoint', [])

[Alberto]

Thank you very much! The program is now running perfectly. I used the second alternative that you recommended.

[Michael]

Thanks for the tip containing FileName and module:

powerpoint.Run('FileName.pptm!modulename.Add2PowerPoint', [])

I also found out how to pass an argument, easy as this:

powerpoint.Run('FileName.pptm!modulename.Add2PowerPoint', 'arg')

But does anyone know how to pass multiple arguments to a function? I tried cell arrays, conventional arrays, different data types and of course arguments just separated by commas. Thanks! Do I need to specify certain VBA variable types within the function maybe?

Ok. Answering my own question ;-):

You can using either arrays or cell arrays:

powerpoint.Run('FileName.pptm!modulename.Add2PowerPoint', [1 2 3])
powerpoint.Run('FileName.pptm!modulename.Add2PowerPoint', {'f', 'o', 'o'})

But note that in VBA you will always have to treat the array (of type VARIANT!) as two-dimensional:

[Guillaume]

It should be a cell array. However, here you can run into problems as matlab doesn't always do the right conversion for SAFEARRAY inputs.

You may also have to tweak some not very well documented options (they're indirectly documented here), such as:

feature('COM_SafeArraySingleDim', 1)"

or

feature('COM_PassSafeArrayByRef', 1)

Unfortunately, if you encounter errors it's very difficult to find out what the problem (wrong option? wrong packing? wrong type?).

An option would be to use the .Net interface of powerpoint (Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint) instead of the COM interface. Matlab's .Net interface is more powerful and saner.

I'm in the process of installing R2019b, so can't test anything right now, but it should be something like:

NET.addAssembly('Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.dll');  %only once per session
powerpoint = Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Application;
args = NET.createArray('System.Object',3);  %for 3 arguments to pass to run
args(1) = 'something';
args(2) = 123.456;
args(3) = 789;
powerpoint.Run('FileName.pptm!modulename.Add2PowerPoint', args);

edit: since you edited your comment while I was writing mine:

So, yes cell array for mixed type, or plain matrix for a safearray of numbers. "But note that in VBA you will always have to treat the array". The first feature I mention above will pass a vector as a 1D array to your VBA code.