How to copy-paste heading and its content in MS word from Matlab?

Hi everyone, I'm working on a Matlab code that allows to write a report in MS word as follows (the following code has been written taking as reference Office VBA Reference and AI tools):

clc; clear all; close all;

% Create a new Word document from the template
word = actxserver('Word.Application'); % it's a Matlab function
word.visible=1;
doc = word.Documents.Add(tmpl_path); 

headings = doc.GetCrossReferenceItems(1) % here I get all the headings of my .docx

% Find the index of the heading you want to copy
heading_index = find(strcmp(headings, '  2.1 TR-x-xxx'));

% Get the range of the heading and its content
start_range = doc.Paragraphs.Item(heading_index).Range.Start;
end_range = doc.Paragraphs.Item(heading_index + 1).Range.End; % End of the next paragraph after the heading
content_range = doc.Range(start_range, end_range);

% Copy the content
content_range.Copy;

Now I would like to copy an heading (TR-x-xxx) and its content (see the following image)

it follows as I would do in MS word if I didn't used Matlab:

Once selcted and copied, I would like to get the following result (I would like to be able to copy-paste and get as many headings+content as I want):

Is my code right? How do i proceed??

Edit

I've updated the last image since I forgot a detail: I want to put the copies before the section "Summary" and not at the end of my .docx

N.B. My document contains a Table of Contents with the " TR-x-xxx " string. This is an important detail since if the string search starts from the beginning of the document, I need to start the selection from the second occurrence.

Answer 1

[Zinea]

Hi Giuseppe,

The job here has two parts: first,  copying the necessary content under a specific heading, and second, pasting the copied content as many times as needed (assumed to be stored in “num_times”).

Copying content under a specific heading:

• The code finds the "end_range,” which is the point until where the content is to be copied. The “start_range” is the “headingText” itself.
• The structure of the document is to be understood for this copy operation. It is assumed that the “headingtext” has the style “Heading 1”.
• The content from “start_range” to “end_range” is copied into the clipboard.

Pasting the copied content multiple times:

• To determine the paste location, the “end_range” is calculated as the position of the last content on the page.
• The cursor is moved to the end of the document after every paste operation.

Here is the MATLAB code for your reference:

clc; clear all; close all; 
% Create a new Word document from the template 
word = actxserver('Word.Application'); % it's a Matlab function 
word.visible = 1; 
tmpl_path = 'C:\Users\zineadas\Documents\try.docx'; % Define your template path (update this path) 
doc = word.Documents.Open(tmpl_path); % Open the document 
headings = doc.GetCrossReferenceItems(1); % Get all the headings of my .docx 

% Convert the headings to a MATLAB cell array of strings for easier handling 
headingsArray = cell(headings); 
% Find the index of the heading you want to copy 
headingText = '2.1 TR-x-xxx'; % Define the heading text you are looking for 
heading_index = find(strcmp(headingsArray, headingText)); 
if isempty(heading_index) 
    error('Heading not found'); 
end 

% Assuming you have identified the heading_index as before 
start_range = doc.Paragraphs.Item(heading_index).Range.End; 

% Find the end_range 
for i = heading_index+1:length(headingsArray) 
    currentStyle = doc.Paragraphs.Item(i).Range.Style; 
    % Check if the current paragraph style matches your heading's style 
    if currentStyle == 'Heading 1' % Adjust based on your specific heading level 
        end_range = doc.Paragraphs.Item(i).Range.Start - 1; 
        break; 
    end 
    % If no matching next heading is found, use the document's end 
    end_range = doc.Content.End; 
end 

% Now, end_range should correctly encompass all subheadings and content 
content_range = doc.Range(start_range, end_range); 
content_range.Copy; 

% 'num_times' is the number of times you want to paste the copied content. 
num_times = 5; 
for i = 1:num_times 
    % Assuming 'end_range' is the ending position of your copied content. 
    % First, ensure 'end_range' is an integer and within the document's content length 
    end_range = max(1, min(end_range, doc.Content.End - 1)); 
    
    % Use the range object to insert a paragraph after the specified range 
    rangeObj = doc.Range(end_range, end_range);
    rangeObj.InsertParagraphAfter(); 
         
        % Now, move the selection to the end of the document to ensure we're pasting at the correct location 
        word.Selection.EndKey(6); % Moves the cursor to the end of the document 
         
        % Paste the content that was previously copied to the clipboard 
        word.Selection.Paste(); 
    end 
 
doc.Save(); 

NOTE: The above code copies the content and pastes it directly with no changes to the indexing of the headings. In case you want the headings to follow a serial order, you need to use “regexp” to print the headings separately, and use the above script to paste the content. Here is the link to the documentation for “regexp” for your reference: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/regexp.html

Hope it helps!

[Giuseppe]

Hi @Zinea, thank you so much for your detailed answer. Please, consider my updated question since I forgot to include some importat details. Howevere I am going to study your solution, stay tuned!