% step 1: define matrix s
s = [ 65, 114, 103, 104; 108, 63, 115, 116; 109, 63, 32, 100; 111, 110, 101, 33 ];
% step 2: extract parts of matrix:
t = [ s(:,1)', s(2,3:4), s(3,3:4), s(4,:) ];
% step 3: pass vector t to function char()
char(t)
% Output: "Almost done!"