Import .mpt file into Matlab?

How do I import a non-rectangular .mpt file containing text and numbers into Matlab?

I can open the file in Excel and save it as a .xlxs and then use 'importdata' but two unwanted things occur: 1) I have too many files to manually do this everytime, and 2) the format changes when imported and I lose all the text/headings/etc.

I have also tried changing the file extension from .mpt to .xls within Matlab and then import the .xls, but the file doesn't open and I get an error that says, 'File contains uninterpretable data.'

I feel like it shouldn't be this hard...

Thanks for any help.

[per isakson]

• ".mpt" &nbsp is that Microsoft Project template file? Isn't that a binary file, i.e. not text?
• "non-rectangular" &nbsp ????