Pasting figures into powerpoint

Hi All, Am suddenly having a problem pasting figures from matlab into powerpoint 2013. I select "edit>copy figure" in the figure window then paste into a powerpoint slide. The figure goes in, but it is embedded in the top left quarter of an empty box (so the actual graphic is 1/4 the size of the transparent box is is being pasted in. The weird thing is that this was working fine until ~ 2 weeks ago. Went back to old code that I have done this cut and paste many time with and those are having the same problem. Am suspicious that there has been an update to powerpoint that is causing the problem, but am totally at a loss as to how to troubleshoot it. Has anyone else had this issue? I would greatly appreciate any advice. Andrew

PS - I am aware there are more consistent ways of getting high quality figures into documents, but cut and paste is super convenient for internal use and has been working for me for 10 years now without any problems until now.

[Joseph Cheng]

What happens when you full screen the figure then do your edit->copy-> paste? Does this also happen if you try to paste into mspaint or word?

[Andrew]

Incisive questions! Full screen has the same problem: pastes into powerpoint larger but still squeezed into the top left quarter of a larger transparent box. Same problem in word and paint. Seems like it is not a powerpoint problem. But then I really don't know what has gone wrong, I have not updated matlab and I don't often fiddle around in the settings. could I have changed a setting by accident? like with a key combination?

[Joseph Cheng]

So the full screen (maximize window) just increases the total size (image + white space)? or is the figure larger in relation to the extra stuff?

[Andrew]

Full screen increases total size, but does not change the scaling of the figure relative to the extra space. (it changes the aspect ratio of the figure, obviously, but appears to stretch the extra space to match). Thanks so much for your help!

[Joseph Cheng]

With the figure open go to file->preferences->Figure Copy Template. I am playing with the different setting but haven't been able to get one matching your issue.

[Andrew]

I tried clicking restore defaults on that screen but that did not resolve the problem. here is a screen grab of my preferences screen

[Andrew]

just for reference, here is an example of a pasted figure. note that I have stretched the empty box to fit the slide from edge to edge, but the graphic is squeezed in the corner. This figure was pasting fine a few weeks ago, and other figures have the same problem.

[Joseph Cheng]

oooooo... windows 8? sorry, I'm nearing the end of the list of ideas as i was possibly thinking it was a windows clipboard issue (adding extra information), i recently had issues trying to even paste a figure due to some bug in Word. I'll post again if i think of anything else.

in the mean time the only other reference i found to this is <http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/96357-how-can-i-copy-my-figure-to-clipboard-without-uicontrols-in-matlab-7.8-%28r2009a%29>

if the command line to copy to the clipboard works i'm completely out of ideas.

[Andrew]

well, no luck. used: figure(1) plot(1:10) h = uicontrol('Style', 'pushbutton', 'String', 'Push', 'Position', [120 150 100 70]); print -dmeta -noui to get a figure onto the clipboard, same problem pasting it. thanks so much for the help, at least I know the problem is not powerpoint. Hopefully somoene else will have some ideas!

[Andrew]

Tried uninstalling 2013b and installing 2014a. Still having the problem. Really hope someone else has experienced this. Andrew

[Nan]

I have the same problem and tried to look for several options with no success. So far I think it's the Metafile driver (or graphic format conversion) problem. Basically, it only happened when you copy or print in Windows Metafile format. It seems to be only with Windows8 that's why I think it's the compatibility issue between Matlab and Windows8. Is there a way to modify graphic format functions?

[Andrew]

I am still having the problem, would love a solution.

[Nan]

Andrew,

Did you change computer spec or screen resolution before this happen? After talking to Matlab rep, we tried reducing the screen resolution and the white area shrank. Didn't completely solve the problem but seem like the problem is related to it. My computer screen resolution is 2560x1440. If yours is similar it may be the case.

[Shaoying]

I have the same problem. Would love if somebody could solve this.

[Yumnah Mohamied]

I have the same problem! Was very convenient before. Please do point me the direction if you have managed to find a way around this new bug.

Answer 1

[Ilia]

I hope it is still relevant for someone.

For me it was solved by either going to lower resolution i.e. from 1920x1080 to 1360x768 or by enabling the checkbox " Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" in the compatibility tab for matlab.

(MATLAB version R2012b; windowa 8.1 and MS Office 2013)

[Anthony]

A colleague of mine had the same problem. This "fix" solved it. Her setup was (MATLAB version R2013b; windows 8.1 and MS Office 2013). I didn't think 1920x1080 was particularly high but I guess it was high enough. Thanks for the solution.

Answer 2

[Barrett]

I have the same issue using Windows 10. I also normally use 2 monitors, and have my laptop screen closed. I only have this issue when I am disconnected from my monitors, and using my laptop as my display. To fix this when using my laptop display, I do the following:

1 - Right click on your desktop 2 - click on "display settings" 3 - Look for the slider bar labeled "Change the size of text and apps" 4 - Set scroll bar to 100% 5 - Copy images as you normally would from MATLAB to PowerPoint.

Hope this works for you.

[John Robinson]

Fixed. After 2 hours of trying, crashing. Thanks, 2 Kudos for Barrett.

Using R2014a, Windows 11, a Dell curved gaming display at 3440x1440 with a 1920x1080 ASUS as display #2 and a Dell laptop. Copy options are Preserve information, Transparent Background, and Match Figure Screen Size.

Things that didn't work:

Unchecking Match Figure Screen Size and fussing with Print Preview settings.

Copying as bitmap worked at first, but after monkeying with settings for an hour a secondary issue arose - MATLAB crashed during the copy.

Thanks again.