how to import series of txt files into matlab

Hello,

I am a newbie in using matlab so i ask for patience.

I have measurment data in txt containing text and numbers. Can you please guide me (at least to list the functions i would use, i will manage from that)? I would like to gather data from a txt file serries. I would like to open each txt, read the data from specific rows and collumns, store the values in specific rows and columns (lets say time series, velocity) into a one matrix which would be the oputput of the whole job. Thank you very much, Mike