MATLAB: Does the ActiveX control COMCTL.Tabstrip.1 report ClientLeft, ClientTop, etc. in strange coordinates in MATLAB 7.3 (R2006b)

inchMATLABpicapoints

I instantiate a Tabstrip control with one set of dimensions:

f = figure
h = actxcontrol('COMCTL.TabStrip.1',[10 20 100 200])

This reports the expected dimensions using some methods:

h.move
 ans =
     10    20   100   200

However, some of the ActiveX properties are considerably different:

get(h)

returns

 ...
          ClientTop: 582
         ClientLeft: 106
       ClientHeight: 4604
        ClientWidth: 2434
 ...

Best Answer

Many Microsoft ActiveX controls, including COMCTL.Tabstrip.1, use "twips" as the unit of measure. A twip is 1/20 of a point, or approximately 1/1440 of an inch.

Because of display resolution, there is not universal conversion between twips and pixels. If designing GUIDE interfaces that include these controls, setting the figure Units property to inches or points can simplify design.

For more information, consult the documentation on your ActiveX control. For example, Microsoft has instructions for converting twips to inches in Microsoft Access at the following page:

 <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/210590>

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Are there any examples that show how to use the ActiveX automation interface to connect MATLAB to Excel

This enhancement has been incorporated into the documentation for Release 14 Service Pack 3 (R14SP3). You can find an example in the "External Interfaces" manual in the chapter "COM and DDE Support (Windows Only)" under "Using MATLAB as an ActiveX Client" or on the web:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_external/example-reading-excel-spreadsheet-data.html

For previous product releases, please see the example below:

Most of the functionality that you get from ActiveX is dependent on the object model, which the external application implements. Consequently, we are usually unable to provide much information about the functions that you need to use in the remote application to perform a particular function. We do, however, have an example that shows how to perform common functions in Excel.

We also recommend that you become more familiar with the Excel object model in order to better use Excel's ActiveX automation interface from MATLAB. You can find more information on this interface by selecting the "Microsoft Excel Visual Basic Reference" topic in the Microsoft Excel Help Topic dialog. This topic area contains a searchable description of Excel methods and properties.

The following example demonstrates how to insert MATLAB data into Excel. It also shows how to extract some data from Excel into MATLAB. For more information, refer to the individual comments for each code segment.

% Open Excel, add workbook, change active worksheet,
% get/put array, save, and close
% First open an Excel Server
Excel = actxserver('Excel.Application');
set(Excel, 'Visible', 1);
% Insert a new workbook
Workbooks = Excel.Workbooks;
Workbook = invoke(Workbooks, 'Add');
% Make the second sheet active
Sheets = Excel.ActiveWorkBook.Sheets;
sheet2 = get(Sheets, 'Item', 2);
invoke(sheet2, 'Activate');
% Get a handle to the active sheet
Activesheet = Excel.Activesheet;
% Put a MATLAB array into Excel
A = [1 2; 3 4];  
ActivesheetRange = get(Activesheet,'Range','A1:B2');
set(ActivesheetRange, 'Value', A);
% Get back a range.  It will be a cell array, 
% since the cell range can
% contain different types of data.
Range = get(Activesheet, 'Range', 'A1:B2');
B = Range.value;
% Convert to a double matrix.  The cell array must contain only scalars.
B = reshape([B{:}], size(B));
% Now save the workbook
invoke(Workbook, 'SaveAs', 'myfile.xls');
% To avoid saving the workbook and being prompted to do so,
% uncomment the following code.
% Workbook.Saved = 1;
% invoke(Workbook, 'Close');
% Quit Excel
invoke(Excel, 'Quit');
% End process
delete(Excel);

There are several options for connecting MATLAB with Excel. For an example that shows how to connect MATLAB with Excel using Excel Link, refer to the "Related Solutions" below.

For an example that shows how to connect MATLAB with Excel using DDE, refer to the "Related Solutions" below.

For information on how to use the XLSREAD function to read .xls files, please refer to the following URL:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2011b/techdoc/ref/xlsread.html

MATLAB: Is it possible to pass pointers of type HWND to functions loaded through the Generic DLL Interface in MATLAB 7.3 (R2006b)

The Generic DLL interface in MATLAB 7.3 (R2006b) is not robust enough to deal with such types of multithreaded windowing applications.

A libpointer is indeed the correct approach, but the type of updating and memory access used by windowing applications will often cause problems with the Generic DLL interface.

If the application is an ActiveX control or something similar, the ACTXCONTROL mechanism is much better suited to windowing applications. For further information on this function, type

doc actxcontrol

at the MATLAB command prompt

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Are there any examples that show how to use the ActiveX automation interface to connect MATLAB to Excel

MATLAB: Is it possible to pass pointers of type HWND to functions loaded through the Generic DLL Interface in MATLAB 7.3 (R2006b)

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