How to place a Matlab graph into Microsoft Word Jeffrey Donnell The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

HOW PLACE A MATLAB GRAPH INTO MICROSOFT WORD

Jeffrey Donnell The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering The Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 30332

Summary This document reviews the steps that a beginner should take in order to insert a Matlab plot into a Word document. Specifically, this document explains: 1) How to copy the plot using Matlabs menu commands. 2) How to use Words menu commands to paste that plot into your Word document. 3) How to use Words tools to adjust the appearance of the plot in Word. 4) How to use Matlabs menu commands to export a plot in a Windows-friendly file format.

How to place a Matlab graph into Microsoft Word Jeffrey Donnell The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

Your experimental project report needs to look like this, with a Matlab plot properly cited, captioned and displayed. This document will explain how to transport this graph from Matlab to Word. This can be accomplished through a Copy-and-Paste operation, or by exporting the plot to a windows-friendly intermediate file such as a bitmap or metafile.

You have already prepared this graph in Matlab and it is ready for transport to Word. We will first describe how to copy this graph and paste it into Word.

How to place a Matlab graph into Microsoft Word Jeffrey Donnell The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

1) Copy the Figure from Matlab 1) In the Matlab figure toolbar, pull down the Edit menu and select Copy Figure:

The plot is copied without further input from you. You may now close your Matlab file and open your Word document in order to paste the copied plot.

How to place a Matlab graph into Microsoft Word Jeffrey Donnell The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

2) Paste the Matlab Graph into Word When you activate your Word document, you should place the cursor at the point where the graph needs to be displayed. Open Words Edit pulldown menu and select Paste Special:

Word will present you with the Paste Special dialog box, which shows Words pre-selected options for inserting the information on the clipboard:

How to place a Matlab graph into Microsoft Word Jeffrey Donnell The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

In the Paste Special dialog, Picture is adequate for pasting a Matlab plot directly into Word. The plot will be displayed as on the next sheet.

How to place a Matlab graph into Microsoft Word Jeffrey Donnell The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

This plot may be marginally too small or too large for the space available on your page. While it is best to make size adjustments in Matlab, acceptable results can be obtained with Word tools, so long as the adjustments are small.

3) Adjust the Size of the Display Your chart will appear, but depending on Matlabs screen settings, the graph may be the somewhat small for your needs on letter-size paper. To resize the chart, you should highlight it, open Words Format menu and select Picture:

How to place a Matlab graph into Microsoft Word Jeffrey Donnell The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

Words Format Picture dialog will display. Here we wish to adjust the size of the display, so the Size tab is selected:

This image is adjusted to obtain a width of around 5 inches. This number does not describe the plot size but the size of the bounding box; when a Matlab plot has a five-inch-wide bounding box, the plot itself will fill about four inches on the printed page, and this is adequate for most classroom needs. Caution: It is best to avoid rescaling a chart or drawing by more than 15%, as you quickly encounter resolution problems. Small adjustments can be made after you paste your chart into Word; larger adjustments should be made before the graphic is copied from the spreadsheet program. Matlab gives you excellent control in adjusting the size of your plots before you copy them.

How to place a Matlab graph into Microsoft Word Jeffrey Donnell The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

The image below shows the finished plot still selected. The bounding box far exceeds the size of the plot:

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4) Exporting a Graph from Matlab If you need to preserve a graph for future use, or if you need to transport a graph to several different media, you may wish to export it as an image file. Matlab allows you to export a finished plot in a variety of Windowsfriendly file formats.

How to place a Matlab graph into Microsoft Word Jeffrey Donnell The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

To export a graph, open the File menu and select Export. Youll see the export dialog below, giving you a list of possible file formats to use:

Enhanced Metafiles, Tiff files and JPEG files all work well with Word, and they provide adequate representation of your graphs. However, such file types cannot be opened and/or adjusted as graphs once they have been created.