Document series – adding external data

What is it for?

Every now and then you might want to use a non-Macrobond series in your analyses, for a one-off calculation. In cases like this, we have a function that allows you to quickly add an external series straight to your document. These are called Document series. In this article, we’ll go through how to use the document series feature.

About document series

The Document series tab is located in the Series list. Series you add via this tab can only be used in that document. There are three options for adding series this way:

  1. Manually enter the values & dates
  2. Paste data sets
  3. Copy time series from a document, and paste

How to create a document series

Manually enter the values & dates

  1. Click on the Document series tab.
  2. Select the bottom left button called 'Create document series'.
  3. On the left side of the window, add the required information: series name and document name, both should start with a letter and contain only lower-case letters & numbers and contain between 2 and 24 characters. The rest of the settings are optional.
  4. Add all the values in the field provided on the right side of the window. Press enter to create a new line.

NOTE:

If you have specified the frequency and start date of the series, you don’t need to enter the dates manually, as the application will automatically assign dates according to those settings.

Using 'Paste document series'

Alternatively, you can use ‘Paste document series’ button.

First copy a series from an Excel file. You can decide to include the date column or not. Then click 'Paste document series' to upload the series automatically (including detecting the frequency if you have copied the dates column) into the new edit window. You can then just adjust the settings and confirm with 'OK' button.

Paste data set

  1. Copy multiple series from an Excel file
  2. Click on the document series tab in Macrobond
  3. Select the bottom left button called 'Create document series'

  4. Click 'Paste data set' in new window button to upload a data set

NOTE:
The application automatically detects the frequency based on the information entered. If you wish to add more series, you can do it in Edit window by clicking 'Add new series' button.

Using document series

Once you’ve created a document series, you should add it to the 'Series and expressions' tab to make it available for analysis and charting. This is done by clicking the red plus sign next to the series name.

Document series are only available in the document you added them to. If other users need to access the document, they will need to download the series after opening the file.

A yellow banner will pop up to inform users of this, as well as what to do next.

If you’re planning on frequently working with external data sets or want to use a series in a number of documents, it’s best to add and organize the data using our two in-house-data functions.