How to get values of pre-filled holes in dotx template

Hi,

I would like to import a template.dotx that contains holes, some being already pre-filled beforehand.

For instance: Imagine that a holeID "ahole1" that contains in the dotx a predefined value x, written when creating the dotx.

In the script, I would like to read the value of "ahole1" prior deciding what to write in a second hole "ahole2".

Pratical example:

dotx is created with "ahole1" value = 10 and "ahole2" is empty.

dotx is imported into matlab

If the value of "ahole1"> 12, a second hole "ahole2" will have appended into it "5"

I am using matlab 2024b and the report generator to import the dotx, but i cannot find the means to get the content of a Hole unless from the script level i append a value to it.

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Answer 1

[Jack]

Hey Marcio,

If you're using MATLAB Report Generator with a .dotx template, you can access the existing values of holes (placeholders) using the Document Object Model (DOM) API. However, MATLAB’s built-in Report Generator functions don’t directly support reading placeholder values in .dotx templates before writing new content.

Workaround: Extract Pre-Filled Hole Values

You can use ActiveX (Windows only) or convert the document to .docx and read the content programmatically.

Using ActiveX to Read a Placeholder Value from a .dotx Template

% Open Word using ActiveX
word = actxserver('Word.Application');
word.Visible = false; % Set to true to see the document open

% Open the .dotx file
doc = word.Documents.Open('C:\path\to\template.dotx');

% Get all content controls (holes)
contentControls = doc.ContentControls;

% Loop through controls to find the value of "ahole1"
for i = 1:contentControls.Count
    cc = contentControls.Item(i);
    if strcmp(cc.Tag, 'ahole1') % Check if it's the hole we need
        value_ahole1 = cc.Range.Text;
        break;
    end
end

% Close Word
doc.Close(false);
word.Quit;
delete(word);

disp(['ahole1 value: ', value_ahole1]);

How to Use This

1. Replace 'C:\path\to\template.dotx' with your actual file path.
2. Ensure Word is installed, as ActiveX requires Microsoft Word.
3. Modify the script to check value_ahole1 before writing to ahole2.

Next Step: Modify "ahole2" Based on "ahole1"

After reading ahole1, you can append text to ahole2 using the MATLAB Report Generator API:

import mlreportgen.dom.*;
doc = Document('myreport.docx', 'docx');

% Create a hole and fill it based on ahole1 value
if str2double(value_ahole1) > 12
    append(doc, 'ahole2', '5');
end

close(doc);

This should help you extract pre-filled values before updating other placeholders.

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