Category: Publishing & saving

How to ensure the image and video quality?

To get your chart as image or video use Export chart as image or video functionality. To make sure your image/video won't be blurry:

  • under 'Custom size' input exact size of image/video if you know it;
  • choose higher DPI - 300 DPI is perfect for presentations, pdf files and prints, 96 DPI should be enough for images/videos designed for webpages because the more DPI the heavier the file is;
  • in your presentation avoid stretching image/video in any direction, it's better to export new image;
  • if you want to export static image and don't know the exact size - use SVG format - it's a vector graphic which means it keeps sharpness when scaled;
  • if you don't know which size is perfect go with higher values, it's always better to shrink than to stretch (but too much shrinking can be bad too).

Images

For static images you can choose PNG or SVG. PNG in lower DPI is great for web and emails. SVG will be the best when you don't know which size to choose as it is a vector graphic and can be scaled without losing sharpness.

Vector images

SVG and EMF are Vector graphic format. They keep sharpness even when you stretch them. They are great if you plan to have them expanded after a click on webpage. SVG is more popular.

When you save charts in the SVG format, the text will normally be vectorized along with the rest of the image. Under Configuration > Settings > SVG tab you can select fonts that you don’t want to be vectorized when saving as SVG.
Note that SVG can also show animation and can show Tooltip.

Videos

For videos you have GIF (looped) and MP4 (not looped). Note that also SVG can show animation. For more information see Animated charts.

Copying & pasting charts

Copy

Right-click on your chart and choose Copy. Then, open another program (i.e., Word document, Outlooks’ new email) and paste the chart. This will copy chart as an object with metadata. This means it can be later refreshed and edited in Macrobond. Note that Copy will create an object which will be a separate entity from the original file.


See here pre-1.29 version view

Copy special

Here you can choose which option of copying you want to use.

See here pre-1.29 version view

 

Metafile and Macrobond Document object

Will copy chart as a refreshable image. You can right-click on image, select Object > Open and it will open in Macrobond main app.

You can choose from two Metafile modes. The default one is first with 'compatibility mode.' After selecting one of these method you will see possibility of enabling 'Copy as a link to the document instead of embedding a copy.' For more information about this see Copy as a link (image linked to a document).

Bitmap

Will copy chart as an image.

SVG

Will copy chart as an image in SVG format (lines will always be sharp). You can also disable here animation features if you applied them earlier. For more information about animating charts see Animated charts and Tooltip.

When you save charts in the SVG format, the text will normally be vectorized along with the rest of the image. Under Configuration > Settings > SVG tab you can select fonts that you don’t want to be vectorized when saving as SVG.

Copy image with document link

This feature is available in Macrobond 1.29 and later.

Will copy chart as an image and added text 'Click here to open the Macrobond document' with hyperlink to the linked document. Document must be saved somewhere where your colleagues has access to (Department or Company account).

Copy special favorites

Under Copy special you can save your preferred saving settings with 'Save as favorite copy operation.' Then on chart, after right-click, you will see Copy special favorites list where you can quickly select favorite format.
Saved favorites for linked charts will show up only if the file is saved somewhere.

See here pre-1.29 version view

 

Copy as a link (image linked to a document)

Note that after version 1.29 this option was moved under Metafile and Macrobond Document object.

By default, charts are exported as a copy of the original Macrobond document. If you want to keep connection between original file and copied chart, save that file somewhere and then you will be able to enable 'Copy as a link to the document instead of embedding a copy' option.

See here pre-1.29 version view

 

This can be useful when you want to copy the same chart in multiple presentations or reports, that way the changes you make in the original file will be applied to all the copied charts at once.

Remember that your linked copies rely on the name and location of the original document staying the same. Moving, deleting or renaming the original Macrobond document will mean that you have to recreate links to your copied charts.

How to export images and animations?

For more options see Export charts as image or video.

Other functions

Paste

You can paste a chart with Ctrl+V or by right-click and selecting Paste Special.

Edit

There are two ways to edit your charts:

  • double-click on the pasted chart you have
  • right-click on a chart and select Macrobond document Object > Open

Chart will open in Macrobond. Once you’re done with your changes, you can close the Macrobond document.

Editing linked charts

When you open linked chart, you will see in Macrobond new tab (for example) Link in Book1 in Microsoft Excel. You can change here a number things but to edit a chart you need to click Open document.

For linked charts you can also do this without having to open any of the presentations or reports the charts have been used in. Simply go to the file location in the application. Any changes made to the original document will be applied to all the linked copies the next time you open them and click on Refresh.

Refresh

There are two ways to refresh your charts:

  • select Refresh button from Macrobond ribbon (this will refresh all charts)
  • right-click on a chart and select Macrobond document Object > Refresh (this will refresh only one chart)

How to change already embedded chart in Office document?

If you double click in a chart embedded in an Office document, it will open for editing in the Macrobond main application. Here you can now select another chart in the document instead.

To change the chart, you have to change documents primary presentation. Use the star button next to the name of the chart in the tree (or right-click and select 'Make chart primary presentation'). Selected chart will be visible in the Office document from now on.

Saving and presenting your work – overview

You’ve found the data, added it to a document, maybe even performed a few calculations and adjusted the appearance of your charts or tables. This is great! But now you need to present your work, whether it’s to colleagues or clients, in a PowerPoint, a print or digital publication or even online. This article will introduce you to the options for saving, sharing, presenting, and publishing, as well as keeping your work updated and relevant to avoid re-creating the same documents from scratch.

Storing documents

Your work can be stored, shared, re-used, and updated when you save it, whether you do so internally or to Macrobond servers. You can save to personal, department or company account. A great benefit is that any of your colleagues can understand what data was used, which calculations were performed and even duplicate documents to build something new. This can all be done from any computer running the application. For sensitive or private work, you can always save documents to your personal Macrobond account, so that you have the benefit of continuity, while maintaining privacy.

Presentation document

Using Presentation documents is an efficient way to organize and present collections of charts. Charts can be sorted into various folders and pages within a Presentation document. Because Presentation documents open in a separate window, outside the application, this gives you the flexibility and control to present charts in an environment fit for purpose, where navigating between topics by folder, pages or charts is simple. An added benefit is that any changes to charts made in the application are displayed in real-time in the Presentation document window. For more about this feature check Presentation documents.

Copy and Refresh in an Office document

For those of you who use Office documents to share or present your work, the Copy/Paste function is a quick and effortless way of doing so. Because Macrobond is fully integrated with Word, PowerPoint, and Excel you can easily update the data in a single chart or entire document, via the 'Refresh' button.

For the charts you’ve already placed in Office documents, there’s a very simple way of making changes. By double clicking on the chart, you open it in the application and the changes you make will automatically be reflected in the ‘chart saved to the Office document to’.

Exporting charts as images

To export charts or tables for use in print and digital publications, you have a number of different file formats to choose from. Which you choose depends on how the file will be used.

Publish your work

And finally, for a more instantaneous sort of publication, you can either tweet your charts straight from the application using 'Send to X' option or use the web publish function to generate a URL or HTML code for publication on a website or blog. For more about this see Publishing charts on X.
Under 'Send to X' there's also option 'Send to LinkedIn', which working on similar terms, for more about this see Publishing charts on LinkedIn.

Finally there's Web publish feature which allows to publish charts fast and simple, for more about this see Web Publish.

How to copy a chart to a Microsoft Office document?

The quickest way is to right-click on your chart and choose Copy. Then paste it in Office document with right-click > Paste or use Ctrl+V. Copy will create a refreshable object which will be a separate entity from the original file. This 'image' can be later refreshed and edited in Macrobond.


See here pre-1.29 version view

Under Copy special you will find more formats for copying like Metafile where you can keep link between original document and your copied refreshable image, Bitmap or animated SVG. For more information see Copying & pasting charts.

Copy as Excel Data set

Overview

Excel add-in includes most commonly used calculations, such as Rate of change and Scale, for everyday work. But this is not the full range of analyses that Macrobond offers. You can quite easily use more advanced analyses and download the output to Excel.

Creating Data set

To access the full range of analyses you can use with your work in Excel, start by opening the application and going to the Analytics tab. Add the series to a Macrobond document. All you have to do now is add the analysis and select which settings to use.

Copy as Excel Data set

To open rebased the series in Excel, right-click on the corresponding branch in the Analysis tree and select Copy as Excel data set.

Now, you can go to Excel and paste the data set (with Ctrl+V or by right-click and Paste Special). Every data set you paste comes with a red object. It stores your downloaded data set as well as the settings.

Settings

You can change settings through:

  • Time table > Copy special > Copy as data set, see Copy special from Time table.
  • right-click on chart in the tree and select 'Configure 'Copy as Excel Data set' (for version 1.28)
  • right-click on chart in the tree and select 'Copy special' (for version 1.29)

See here pre-1.29 version view

Copy as linked Excel Data set

If you want to create object in Excel connected with original Macrobond file use Copy as linked Excel Data set. Note that Macrobond file must be saved somewhere.

How Data set works in Excel?

Here you can decide which calculation you want to use when downloading the data. The list shows you what you applied in your Macrobond document. You could, for instance, output the original data by clicking Series list.

Although the overall look is a bit different than in Data set object created with Excel's All series - each panel works the same. For more information on how they work see Working with All series mode.

Blank items

You can also add empty rows or columns to the data set, these are called blank items.

How to keep order of series?

Series list is like a big basket of assorted time series. If you want to keep the order of series copy data set from Time table. For more information see Copy special from time table.

Editing document

If you want to make any adjustments to the calculations, just click the Edit document... button. An information window will show up and data set will open as Macrobond document. Once you’re done with your changes, you can close the Macrobond document.

Copy special from Time table

Overview

This Copy special dialog box allows you to customize how your time table will be copied. Here, you can define the settings for this particular copy and click OK to finalize it, or you can choose to save the settings and use them as default for the normal Copy option. This can be useful if you often copy data in the same way. Order visible in Time table will be kept in the copied object.

Copy as...

There are two main ways to copy a time table - as 'Text' or as a 'Data set.'

Copy as text

This will yield a static result that can be pasted into any application that can handle text.

Copy as data set

Data copied in this way is linked to Macrobond and allows for continuous updating after the data has been pasted. It’s a good alternative if you want to paste the data into Excel.

Since version 1.28 settings for Copy as Data set are also accessible through right-click in tree.

Copy as data set - linked

If you want to keep connection between original file and copied data set save that file somewhere and then you will be able to mark 'linked' option.

Other settings

From & To

In the From and To textboxes, you can change the time window included.

Include in series header

This allows you to customize how much data is displayed in the header.

Order

Here, you can determine the order in which the data will be pasted.

Period date

This defines the date for each data point. It can be the last date of the previous time period or the first day of the current time period.

Date format

You can determine the appearance of the dates. The short format will copy the date as numbers while the long format will display the date in text form.

Orientation

Here, set the direction of the data when pasted.

Additional fields

You can include more information about the series. The information will be displayed below the header.

Calculated in-house series – saving your own calculation

Purpose

In Macrobond, a 'calculated series' is the output series resulting from various analyses. An 'in-house' series is your own series that you decide to save and access via the application. Saving a calculation as an in-house series allows you to access and reuse the output of your calculations at a later date, without having to reproduce the calculations on the original data.

Creating calculated in-house

Let’s say you’ve applied the necessary calculations to the data and are ready to save the calculated output as a series. The first thing to do is to add a Time table as a branch of the analysis you want to save. Then, click on a series to select it and then right-click to open the context menu.

You have two options for saving:

  • Save values as in-house series - the values will be copied as a snapshot, meaning that the series will not be automatically updated in the future. It will be saved as an Account in-house.
  • Save calculation as in-house series the underlying calculation is saved, allowing it to be updated automatically when new values are available. This is the option for creating calculated in-house series.

The next step is to fill in the basic, required information for the series:

  • Location - to which account series should be saved
  • Series name - unique code used to find series in the application
  • Description - title of the time series
  • Region, Category, Unit, Currency, and Class

Calculated in-house will be saved with the entire current file. Calculation will be located under My calculated series node. This node can be added only through this process.

Adding calculated in-house to a chart

To access in-house series, go to Analytics or Browse tab and select the Account in-house database from the drop-down menu. Remember to refresh the data tree to show the series you’ve just added.

To add it to a chart double-click on it or use red ' + ' sign..

Sharing calculated in-house

You can add calculated in-house series to a file like any other in-house series and embed it  with Document properties functionality.

The file in which calculated in-house series is saved (the one with My Calculated series node) is a source file and cannot be shared in that form. Before sharing it with anyone please delete that special node.

You can also save calculated in-house series from the start to your Department or Company account to share it with your colleagues.

Editing calculated in-house

To edit the settings of a series, go to the My series tab, select account, and navigate to the series.
You can also find it from Analytics or Browse tab. In such case you need to navigate to series and in Actions ribbon select My series > Go to in-house series.

Click Edit to open the source document.

The source file will open as Calculated: name_of_file. Make changes to the calculations of your series, as you normally would, and remember to save the document when you close it. These changes will be reflected in any document containing that calculated series once you do so.

Adding another calculated in-house in same file

You can always add more calculation in-house series from an existing file. Go to My calculated series node and press Add. Fill in Series name and save file.

Note you can add multiple 'My calculated series' nodes in your calculated file, they can be under each analysis. Please go to Add (or right-click and select it), then choose 'My calculated series' from analysis panel.

Changing calculated in-house's location

Due to technical reasons it's not possible to change calculated in-house location (standard in-house series can be moved). But you can open existing calculated file, duplicate (File > Duplicate) it and re-save in another place creating new calculated in-house series.

Note that using Time table from the calculated in-house file for another series will also create not-wanted additional series. Please use the way above to create more calculated in-house serie.

Deleting Account in-house

There are two ways how you can delete an in-house series:

  1. Go to My series tab, find the series, right-click on it in bottom panel and select 'Delete'.
  2. Mark it on Series list, go to Actions ribbon > My series and press 'Delete in-house series'

Questions

Can I connect my calculated in-house series to original file?

Unfortunately, not. When you are saving your calculation you are saving it together with a new separate file (duplicate of your original file). To change calculation you need to find the in-house's newly created source file and edit it.

To keep track of your documents you can create a Presentation document and collect charts from calculated series documents in there.

Why can't I see calculated in-house's Start date, End date and other metadata?

Application does not know the start until the calculation has been performed and the calculations are not performed until a series is added to a document. This is because calculations can be heavy and they could slow down application.

Accessing Macrobond data in Excel

There are two ways to access Macrobond data in Excel. You can either start in Excel, perform a direct download using the Macrobond add-in. Or you can start in the application and download the calculations you’ve performed there to Excel. Both ways will be described below.

Direct download from Excel add-in

If you’re working in Excel and would like to download data directly, you’ll use the Overview or All series buttons under the Macrobond tab.

You can either select from a list of key indicators or from all the data in the application. As a quick example let’s look into Flow of Funds data for the US. This gives you the option of going through all the different categories to select what you’d like to download. Once downloaded the data will be organized in the same way as it is presented when selecting it. You can also view series metadata.

Copy as Excel data set from Macrobond

Let’s say you’d like to apply more advanced calculations to the data, then 'Copy as Excel Data set' is a good method to use. It is typically much simpler to apply certain analyses in the application than it would be to use an Excel formula to do so. To demonstrate, let’s look into the National Accounts data for India. These time series are not seasonally adjusted so, after finding the data, you’d perform the analysis in Macrobond and then simply copy the analyzed data by right clicking on analysis and choosing 'Copy as Excel Data set'. After this you can paste it into Excel by pressing Ctrl+V.

This will create red block in Excel, which is called the Data set object. It contains all the information about the downloaded data set. It also acts as a reference for where the data is located in the sheet. So, don’t delete it. If you’d like to move or make changes to the data set object have a look at Working with All series mode article.

Updating data sets in Excel

If you want to update the downloaded data sets to reflect the latest data release, click on Refresh. Charts are also automatically updated using the same mechanism.

Working with All series mode

Positioning the data set

When you work in Excel, organizing data is crucial, especially if you download a lot of data sets from Macrobond into one sheet. Each data set you download from the Macrobond add-in comes with a red box like the one you see below. We call this the data set object, and it stores your downloaded data set as well as its settings.

By default, the location of the data is linked to the position of the red data set object. This allows you to move the entire data set by dragging the object to a new position. It’s a convenient way to organize your Excel file before working with the data.

So, when you start creating links and calculations with the data, it may be best to have the data set locked in a specific cell so that these links don’t get broken or reference the wrong cells.

To lock the data set, you need to access the Edit window. Right click on the data set object and select Edit. Here, you’ll find the Automatic positioning setting. Just uncheck the box, and enter the cell you want the data set to start in. Now the data set is locked to a specific cell, meaning that if we move the red object, the data will remain at the location we specified. This way, you don’t have to worry about updating links that you create in Excel.

Adding metadata

Metadata refers to additional information about a time series, like, for example, its source or next release date. When you download time series into Excel, you may want to include some metadata so that you can easily view this type of information without leaving Excel.

You can add metadata by right-clicking on the Macrobond data set object and clicking Edit. Click on Additional fields drop-down to select what you’d like to add from a list of the most commonly used options.

You can also access other metadata options, here. In the new window that opens, the options are organized by type.

It is also possible to set a default list of metadata that will be included every time you download data to Excel. All you have to do is select the options you want and then click on Save as default.


As you may notice the all metadata is added above the time series so that it’s easy to check.

Inserting columns & rows

You might be wondering why you can’t just add your data and calculations the ordinary way in Excel. If you did add them that way, the output wouldn’t be read by the application as part of the data set and wouldn’t be maintained.

To start, you need to add empty cells where your data will be placed. Open the Edit data set window and find Orientation in the Output column. Choose Column or Row based on the orientation of your data set. To finish off, click on Add blank item button. By default, the blank column will be added at the end of the data set, If you want to place it elsewhere, simply drag it to the appropriate position.
If you need to add a lot of blank cells, or have a large data set, you might want to avoid manually dragging the columns or rows into place. To set the location before inserting them, navigate to the series basket. Select a series, right click on it and choose to insert the cells above or below this point.
Any text, values or calculations added to the cells within these columns or rows will be maintained when you refresh the data set.

Locating series in the data tree

Locating series in the Macrobond data tree is useful when you want to find data related to a particular series you’re working with.

We’ll look at two examples. In the first we locate data we’ve already downloaded in the data tree to select more series. Then we go on to show you how to switch between views of the database.

Selecting more series

Right-click on one of the time series, select Locate in tree and choose the same database view we used to download the data. Let’s say that was Source & Release. Now we can browse related data from the same source.

Switching between database views

This feature can also be used to find the same series in another location in the database. Instead of having to look through the data tree from scratch for the other series, you can use the Locate in tree feature. The Concept & Category view of the database is ideal for cross-country comparisons, so right click, choose Locate in tree and select Concept & Category. Now you can simply scroll through the list to select the same series for other countries.