Replacing an image in excel

Hello everyone, I know how to write an image to a specific location/cell in Excel using Matlab, but I am having a really hard time finding or building a script that can exchange a specific image on a specific sheet.

Here's the first bit of code:

 %Start Active X Server
xlApp = actxserver('Excel.Application');
xlApp.visible = 1;

 %Open the the spreadsheet
xlworkbook = xlApp.Workbooks.Open([pwd,'\New.xls']);

 %Select sheet:
Sheet = get(xlworkbook.Sheets,'Item',7); % sheet
Sheet.Select;

 %Work in Sheet
xlsheet = xlworkbook.ActiveSheet;
xlsheet.Shapes.Item(1).Select

As can be seen, using the Activex commands, I was able to get as far as selecting the specific shape on a sheet, but after that I'm stuck, as I can't find any proper documentation on how to replace the selected image (i.e. .shape).

Thanks a lot!

[Kevin Chng]

I'm not sure. Do you mind try this?

xlsheet.Shapes.Fill.UserPicture ("C:\image.png")

I'm not sure. however, sometimes, i will take this link as guideline.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/excel.shapes.addpicture

[Sven Henrich]

Thank you for your response.

Unfortunately Matlab/ActiveX calls an undefined function or variable error for that code for the .Fill.UserPicture bit.

Everywhere I look, people are deleting the old images and adding new ones, but it can't be that hard to exchange an image path. Especially when I need to replace the pictures which have no cell characteristics (i.e. are "free floating" on a sheet).

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

First, avoids relying on ActiveAnything, it's a recipe for bugs. For example, with your code something (e.g. the user) could activate a different sheet between the moment you activate the 7th sheet and the moment you retrieve the active sheet. In your case, it's also a complete waste of time since, assuming that the active sheet doesn't change, what your code is doing is simply

xlsheet = Sheet;  %in a roundabout way

With regards to your question, to replace a picture you have to delete the existing shape and create a new one.

xlApp = actxserver('Excel.Application');
xlApp.Visible = true;   %optional
xlworkbook = xlApp.Workbooks.Open(fullfile(pwd, 'New.xls'));  %prefer fullfile to building the path yourself
xlSheet = xlworkbook.Sheets.Item(7);  %or xlSheet = get(xlworkbook.Sheets,'Item',7);
oldshape = xlSheet.Shapes.Item(1);  
newshape = xlSheet.Shapes.AddPicture(picturefile, 0, 1, oldshape.Left, oldshape.Top, oldshape.Width, oldshape.Height);
oldshape.Delete;
xlworkbook.Close(true);  %close and save changes
xlApp.Quit;

[Sven Henrich]

Thank you for the reply. Yes using ActiveX should be done with care. The roundabout is because I have multiple named sheets which I call in my program via that line and just simplified it for the question.

Anyhow, thank you for your help I finally saw what I was doing wrong.

Cheers!