Macrobond 1.17

The latest update of the Macrobond application includes features that will substantially increase productivity, by giving you more control and a simpler way of doing tasks.

The new features and tools in 1.17 will allow you to:

• customize the way you navigate data
• save time creating charts and tables
• simplify and improve the way you present your work
• increase the ease with which you perform analyses

Below you’ll find a description of the new features, as well as links to relevant learning materials on the help site.

For information about installing the latest version, see the section on how to upgrade, at the end of this post.

If you would like help with installation or have any questions about how to get access, please don’t hesitate to contact the Macrobond team.

Smart Data Navigation

We have two new features that will substantially improve the ease with which you find data: Favorites and Bookmarks. Don’t let the unassuming names of these features fool you, they pack a considerable punch when it comes to customizing the way you access data in the application.

Series favorites

In version 1.17 you can tag series as favorites and organize and access them in the new favorites tab. This allows you to create your own collection of series, organized in a way that makes sense for how you use them.

A typical use case might be for series you use often and would like easy access to, or to use as a reference to facilitate consistent use of time series across departments or organizations.

Click here to see a quick video tutorial about how to tag and organize favorites.

Data tree bookmarks

In the latest version of the application you can bookmark specific locations in the data tree. All your bookmarks will be located in the new Bookmarks tab, where you can rename the titles, and organize them into different groups. The result is a completely customized way to find and select the data you want to use. Bookmarks can also be used as a collection of shortcuts to different points in the tree.

To view a quick video tutorial on using this feature click here.

See which series have been used in other documents

Look out for the small blue square in the notes column of any database listing. It indicates that a series has been used in one or more documents associated with your Macrobond account. Right-click on the icon to view or access the documents the series has been used in. Because the icon identifies which series have been used in documents before, it can also help you quickly locate relevant series when selecting from an extensive listing.

For more information on making use of this icon click here.

Optimized presentation

Subtitle per pane

You can now specify a subtitle per pane in time and scatter charts.

Twitter – chart size

For everyone who wants to make sure their charts are tweeted at the same size they have set in the application there is a new size setting, called current, that will allow you to do so. Simply select current from the Twitter dialog, instead of selecting one of the two Twitter-optimized sizes.

Presentation documents – Auto pagination

In addition to pages and folders, there is a new type of section that you can add to a presentation document called paginator, which will automatically organize charts into separate pages. Using paginator allows you to specify the number of charts you want to display on a single page. All the charts in a paginator section will be automatically be divided into pages according to the number you specified, and the order in which they are listed. Any changes you make to the order or number of charts in a paginator section will automatically be reflected in the pages.

In the example below, there are 10 charts and the paginator has been set to show four charts on each page. This results in two pages with four charts and one with the remaining two.

For a refresher on how to create presentation documents, have a look at this video.

Presentation documents – Full screen slide show

We have now added slideshow capability to presentation documents. Simply click on the button indicated in the image below to enter presentation mode.

You can use the arrow keys, page up/down buttons on your keyboard, or the mouse wheel to navigate. In addition to navigating between slides, the presentation is also interactive. If you have multiple charts on a slide, and want to highlight one, double click on it to view the chart alone. Use the backspace key, or back on the mouse to return to the previous view.

Presentation documents – Export as PowerPoint presentation

Presentations can now be exported to PowerPoint from the file menu, to create and save it as a PowerPoint document (pptx) file.

Presentation documents – Quick view of chart in separate window

Press the P button in the toolbar or Ctrl+Q, in order to view a chart in a separate window. Besides being a quick way to create a new presentation document this is also a way to use a second display when building a Macrobond document. This is especially useful for seeing changes to a chart in real-time, as you make adjustments to an analysis, for example.

For more information click here.

Presentation documents – Fixed size of header/footer

Setting a fixed size for the page header and footer will ensure that all the pages in a presentation document have a uniform layout, as the size will no longer be determined by the content. This can also be used as a way to define blank spaces you want to use once you’ve exported the document, such as for additional formatting of a PowerPoint presentation, for example.

Presentation documents – Page margin

The page margin is the space between the border of the page and the charts on the page. To get an even margin on all sides of the charts, set the page margin to the same values as used for the spacing.

The page margin can be set in your presentation document stylesheet for your convenience.

Analytics

Vector Auto Regression – Diff

It is common to calculate first order differences of series that are expressed as “levels”, before using them in a VAR model. This can be accomplished by using a formula or Rate of change analysis before the VAR analysis. If you want to reverse that process, aggregate the estimated values and then view them as “levels”, you can use a new setting called diff to simplify the process. By checking “Diff” for a series, the analysis will calculate differences, use them in the model and then aggregate the differences when producing the estimated series.

Vector Auto Regression – Impulse response

Select this option in order to calculate the response in one equation, to an impulse in another. To do so, specify the equation, variable, and the number of periods for the impulse.

Rolling aggregate

Previously, a rolling sum could be calculated for a series by using Macrobond formula language. To make this process quicker, rolling sum has now been added as an optional setting when applying an aggregate calculation to a series.

Enhanced Integration

Excel add-in

When adding data to excel from a Macrobond document, you now have the possibility to alter the scale of the values from within Excel. Previously this could only be done by making the adjustments in the application and exporting the modified dataset to Excel again.

SQL Connector

In the SQL Database Connector, you can specify the attribute DisplayUnit for a series. This will then be displayed as the unit in the Macrobond application. For more information about the SQL connector, click here

How To Upgrade

The new version can be installed directly via the Macrobond application by clicking on the yellow ribbon, which appears on the screen, or by selecting Check for update in the Help menu. If you need assistance, a description of how to upgrade may be found here.

If you are unable to make use of automatic updates or use the setup program on https://redir.macrobond.com/go/installation, then please note that upgrades from versions prior to 1.16 cannot be done by simply installing a patch (MSP file). You need to install the base installation (MSI file) and the corresponding patch (MSP file).

In Macrobond 1.17 we have dropped support for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. The minimum requirements are now Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.

If you are running a version of Windows not supported by this version of Macrobond, you can continue to run the older version until support ends for that version. Those dates can be found here: https://help.macrobond.com/additional-materials/product-versions/