Add Hyperlinks to Powerpoint from Matlab using ActiveX - matlab

Question

Does anyone know how I can use matlab and activeX to add hyperlinks to powerpoint files?
There are two helpful posts on MatlabCentral, but they don't give me everything I need. The first explains how to create a powerpoint file using matlab: "Create Powerpoint Files with Matlab"
and the second shows how to use ActiveX to insert hyperlinks into Excel:"Add Hyperlink in Excel from Matlab" (See the second answer by Kaustubha)
I tried to merge the two answers. In powerpoint the slide objects have the .Hyperlinks attribute, but there is no .Add method for .Hyperlinks as there is in Excel.
Here is the code I have so far. I would like the link to appear in a table:
ppt = actxserver('PowerPoint.Application');
op = invoke(ppt.Presentations,'Add');
slide = invoke(op.Slides,'Add',1,1);
sH = op.PageSetup.SlideHeight; % slide height
sW = op.PageSetup.SlideWidth; % silde width
table = invoke(slide.Shapes, 'AddTable', 1, 3, 0.05*sW, sH*.2, 0.9*sW, sH*.60);
table.Table.Cell(1,1).Shape.TextFrame.TextRange.Text = 'www.stackoverflow.com';
% Add hyperlink to text in table using ActiveX
% slide.Hyperlinks - this exists but there is no add feature
invoke(op,'Save');
invoke(op,'Close');
invoke(ppt,'Quit');
delete(ppt);

Answer 1

Slide objects have a .Hyperlinks collection that you can examine to learn how many hyperlinks there are, where they point and so forth. To add a hyperlink you have to work with individual shapes or text ranges.
Sub AddAHyperlink()
Dim oSh As Shape
' As an example we're going to add hyperlinks to the
' currently selected shape.
' You could use any other method of getting a reference to
' a shape that you like, however:
Set oSh = ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange(1)
' Add a hyperlink to the shape itself:
With oSh
.ActionSettings(1).Hyperlink.Address = "http://www.pptfaq.com"
' you can also add a subaddress if required
End With
' Or add the hyperlink to the text within the shape:
With oSh.TextFrame.TextRange
.Text = "Hyperlink me, daddy, 8 to the click"
.ActionSettings(1).Hyperlink.Address = "http://www.pptools.com"
End With
End Sub
To access the text within a table cell you'd do as you're already doing:
table.Table.Cell(1,1).Shape.TextFrame.TextRange
or
table.Table.Cell(1,1).Shape
or
Set oSh = table.Table.Cell(1,1).Shape
then use the same code as I've shown above

Answer 2

Not sure if this is still an active request from anyone and potentially the program capability has changed; but for anyone else that might be interested it does appear to be possible to add links.
Here is an example from some code I wrote...The slide number/item references will need to get updated for your task but I think it covers the key points. In this example the goal was to add a hyperlink to another slide within the presentation.
hyperlink_text = sprintf('%0.0f, %0.0f, %s', Presentation.Slides.Range.Item(3+i).SlideID, Presentation.Slides.Range.Item(3+i).SlideIndex,Presentation.Slides.Range.Item(3+i).Shapes.Item(2).TextFrame.TextRange.Text);
The hyperlink text will look something like this, as a text string. '250, 4, Slide Title'
Presentation.Slides.Range.Item(3).Shapes.Item(2).Table.Cell(1+i,1).Shape.TextFrame.TextRange.ActionSettings.Item(1).Hyperlink.SubAddress = hyperlink_text;
For internal links the Hyperlink.Address field can be left blank.
It appears that the only thing that was missing from the prior answers was that when using Matlab to execute the powerpoint VBA you need to use ActionSettings.Item(1) to refer to the mouseclick action instead of ActionSettings(1) that was shown from basic powerpoint VBA.
Hopefully this can be helpful for anyone else still looking.
Note that I am currently using Matlab R2017A and Powerpoint in Microsoft 365 ProPlus