In the Macrobond toolbar, go to Help and click on About. Also you can find here name of department, and license type.
In the Macrobond's Start tab, go to lower left corner. Beside the version's number you can find here your type of license.
Each Macrobond version has approx. 2-years life span before it expires. If you want to check if/when your version expires see Product versions and support expiration.
There is no special button to sign out in Macrobond.
Since Macrobond can be used on two machines*, the account is locked to the first two computers on which it is used. The lock can be reset if you need to move to a different machine. If you need to reset the lock, please contact Support.
You can use Clear Settings Wizard to wipe out your credentials. By default it should be located under C:\Program Files\Macrobond Financial\Macrobond
*machine is here 'one computer in a particular location'
There is no Linux version of Macrobond. Please refer to the requirements section.
Macrobond is not an OS X application, it is designed to work on Windows. It is possible to run the application on a Mac, but it requires additional software and a Windows license. Since the solutions vary, we cannot provide support. However, issues on a correctly configured virtual machine, from for example Parallels, are rare.
Some networks restrict allowed connections. As such, default network settings in Macrobond may not work when establishing a connection to the Macrobond servers. If this is the case, our built-in Automatic Configuration tool may help with find a working connection.
It can be accessed in the toolbar, choose Configuration (for MB pre-1.28: Edit) and go to Settings:
See here pre-1.28 version view
In the settings window, go to the Communication tab and click on the 'Automated configuration' button.
Clicking 'Run tests' will automatically test several communication options. The process might take a few minutes.
If a working configuration is found, a new button should appear above the Run tests button called 'Use the first configuration that was found'. Clicking it will configure the Macrobond application to work with the configuration which was determined to be the optimal one.
In order to start using the new configuration, click 'OK' and restart the application.
If the test fails please ask your IT to check if resources under this link aren't blocked on your side.
Macrobond stopped supporting unencrypted HTTP communication on 2021-03-16, for more information please click here.
The latest update of the Macrobond application includes changes that will substantially improve how easily you find data. We’ve also added great charting features and some new settings for analyses.
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.
Updated logo
Due to a number of changes to our branding, you’ll notice a new logo in charts as well as brighter shades for the colors used on activity tabs and action groups.
If your stylesheet contains the Macrobond logo, any chart you create or update using this version will show the new logo.
The new logo is more discrete and will not draw attention away from your charts. Because of a slight difference in dimensions, charts created with the previous logo might look a little different when you update them.
We have also refreshed the standard style sheet that comes with the application, which you can see in the chart below.
In Macrobond 1.18, you can now visualize data using a Bubble graph.
You’ll find a step-by-step video tutorial on bubble charts here, under the heading: Using different types of charts.
You now have two additional options for displaying the chart axis title (unit); centered at the top, or aligned with the edge of the axis at the top.
Please note: the title text will not automatically wrap, and can overlap with the other axis title or be clipped. So, consider the length of the axis title when deciding where it should be placed.
In Macrobond 1.18, adding text columns in bar charts has been made easier.
There has always been a dynamic text that you can use in charts called DocumentSources, which generates a list of all sources used by the series in the document.
We have started adding abbreviations to most of our sources, as well as a new dynamic text property called DocumentSourceAbbreviations, which will use the abbreviations when available. If a source does not have an abbreviation, the full description will be used.
For example, if you use the text “{c DocumentSourceAbbreviations}” in a chart, you will get a list of the source abbreviations separated by comma.
There are two options for saving filters
Filter list: A specific group of settings for a filter
Set up the settings in a filter for a particular purpose, for example a selection of countries or regions called Emerging Markets
Filter set: A specific combination of filters for a search
You can create and save a specific group of filters to apply to searches.
You can also use this new feature to filter an existing list of search results.
Several improvements to save time and productivity have been added to the Series List.
Change region is a feature that was introduced for documents, which made it possible to replicate an entire document and substitute the data for the same data from a different region.
Under the tab, series information, you’ll find a list of all the series used in the document, with certain metadata.
An example of a use case is to make it easier to identify the series used in the document when you’ve used a lot of formulas.
Select one or more rows and apply the change region feature from the context menu (right click). This is a convenient way to change the region for a particular subset of the series.
We have added a Refresh button above list of functions in the formula/function editor. The list is automatically updated, but this button can be used to force a fresh list in case some other user has made changes to the set of functions.
Support for VECM, Vector Error Correction Modelling, has been added. This allows you to use a VAR model where variables may be cointegrated.
The Rolling Regression analysis can now produce P and T values as series:
The Histogram report now contains median and observation count:
When looking at updates in the releases tab, you’ll notice that the “little blue square” is shown next to certain headline series. This icon indicates that a series has been used in a document. Right clicking on the square will allow you to see which documents the series was used in, when, and by whom. Simply click on an entry to open the document.
When working with a dataset that references a Macrobond document, you can now cut & paste one or several series to change the order they are listed in.
Creating this kind of dataset is done by selecting Copy as Excel dataset in the application, or by selecting Convert to Document dataset in the Excel add-in, under All Series mode. The cut & paste feature is already available in the other types of Excel datasets.
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).
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You can now specify a subtitle per pane in time and scatter charts.
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.
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.
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.
Presentations can now be exported to PowerPoint from the file menu, to create and save it as a PowerPoint document (pptx) file.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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/
Far be it from us to tell you where you work best. At times, what works best for you might be Excel, even if you still want the benefits of using the Macrobond database. Working with Macrobond data in Excel can be very efficient, and probably more flexible than you’d expect.
With version 1.16 of the application you will find that working with documentation & charts is much simpler and more efficient. From creating dynamic presentations to tweeting charts, making use of your work product easily, in a variety of contexts, has been a central focus of this update.
The following text will guide you through these & other changes: what they are, where you can find them, and the different ways you can make use of them.
Click on the link for How to upgrade in the Overview section below if you would like more information.
Presentation documents, Analytics & charting, Exporting & sharing charts, Navigating the application, Document handling, How to upgrade
As the name suggests, presentation documents are used to organize charts and tables so that you can easily and professionally showcase an overview of your work. The Presentation documents window opens outside the application to give you more flexibility for working with, sharing and presenting charts. Charts can be organized by pages and in folders.
An example of two pages in Presentation documents, containing six charts each.
While Presentation documents does not have the same formatting options as PowerPoint, it does contain some simple editing options. It also allows you to present dynamic charts. For example, you can easily:
We plan to make it possible to view these documents on the web based Macrobond.NET in the future.
To get started with Presentation documents have a look at this easy-to-follow help guide.
If you have already installed the new version click on this link to see a sample presentation document: Macrobond chart library : What’s new/1.16/Presentation/Sweden summary.
If you have not updated yet click on the yellow ribbon that you’ll see when you open the Macrobond application.
To help you share your insights quickly with a larger audience, you can now send charts directly to Twitter from the Macrobond application. You can select the size of the image (which affects the amount of characters used) as well as add an accompanying text.
An example of how the Twitter dialog box will appear in the application.
When you have a chart open, go to File and select Send to Twitter. The first time you use this feature, you’ll be asked to log in to your twitter account via the Macrobond application, in order to approve access.
If you want to revoke the application’s access to your Twitter account. You can do so on the Twitter “Applications” page.
For a more detailed explanation see the help page.
Use SVG to smoothly export your charts and tables to the web, or programs such as Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. In addition to PNG (bitmap) and EMF (metafile) we now offer a format called SVG via the export, web publish and copy to clipboard functions. To adjust the way text and fonts are handled in SVG go to Edit | Settings | SVG, in the top menu bar.
See the help page for this feature here.
On the same topic of reaching a broader audience more easily, if you run Windows 10 you can now send images of Macrobond charts to Windows apps. Sharing is as simple as opening the relevant chart, and selecting one of the multiple ways to share the image: via the File menu, the toolbar, context menu, or with the Ctrl+H shortcut. There is also a Share button in the Web publish activity in the Macrobond application.
The Share feature will bring up the standard Windows 10 share options similar to this.
To give you greater control over your work product it is now possible to revert to older versions of a document. For documents stored in one of the account storages, you can access the last 10 versions. These versions will be available for up to one year. This feature is also available for Style sheets.
Right click on a document in the File, Open dialog and you will see an item called Older versions:
To make sure you don’t accidentally lose valuable documents, all deleted documents or folders stored in a company account will be moved to a folder called Recently deleted. Documents will be stored here for a few months, allowing you to retrieve them.
This folder will always be last in your list of folders. The folder will be created automatically the first time you delete something, but you may need to press refresh to view it immediately.
Documents will automatically be deleted from the “Recently deleted” folder after a few months.
You can see if a document is used in Presentation documents or published on the web using the Web publish feature by selecting Used in from the context menu of a document. You can open presentation documents from this menu if you have access to them.
For documents you need to access quickly or frequently, you can now pin to the top of the start activity. Pinned documents will always the first of the recently opened documents shown. Hovering your mouse over the document will activate the pin symbol. Simply click on it to pin the document.
We have added an option for generating series for the confidence band in the VAR analysis. You can select whether you want to include the parameter uncertainty or not. This could potentially be a heavy calculation.
There is a new option called Calculate trend in the Seasonal Adjustment Census X-13 analysis. This will produce an extra time series containing the trend output from the seasonal adjustment model.
You can specify an optional data range in the series list if you want to limit the time series used in the document. The range is applied to the series before any other operations, such as frequency conversion.
Holding the shift key down when drawing line or arrow annotations will ensure that your lines are perfectly horizontal or vertical.
Holding the shift key down when changing the size of text boxes will constrain the text box to square proportions.
You can now copy a selected color using the copy and paste commands, and apply this to the color settings for other segments of the chart.
The start activity will now be shown by default when you open the application. If you would like start with the most recently used activity, uncheck the option Always show this activity when starting, in the lower right corner of the start activity.
There is a new indicator in the status bar that tells you if there are any unread news items. This is where you can find out about new data added to the application database, new features and fixes to the application, and posts such as the Development team’s blog. Click the links in the notifications to read the news on our website.
The new version can be installed directly via the Macrobond application by clicking the yellow ribbon, which appears on the screen, or by selecting Check for update on the Help menu. If you need assistance, a description of how to upgrade may be found here.
In Macrobond 1.16 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/
Please note that this upgrade requires admin rights, so you may need to ask your IT department for assistance.
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 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).
The new version can be installed directly via the Macrobond platform by clicking the yellow line which appears on the screen or by selecting Check for update on the Help menu. If you need assistance, a description of how to upgrade may be found here. You might need additional help from your IT-department.
There is a new type of chart called “Bar charts.” They are not time charts, but show “items” as rows. The columns can be text or graphs
The name “bar chart” is perhaps a bit misleading since they can contain more than just bars and you can actually omit all bars.
Here is an example with three columns; one text column and two bar graph columns.
Bar charts can be copied and updated in Office documents and through the Web publishing feature, just like other charts. You can find documentation about Bar charts here or by pressing F1 in the application when you have a Bar chart on the screen.
Accompanying the new chart type are some new Actions that you can execute after selecting some time series. These presentations can be used as a quick overview or, by selecting Open in Analytics, as a convenient starting point for your own charts.
This will show the last value as the proportion of the total for each series as a percentage. The values are sorted in descending order.
This will show the last value as the proportion of the total for each series as a percentage. The values are sorted in descending order.
This will actually use a Bar chart presentation, but without presenting any bars. Instead it will show a summary with the last value, the change since the last period and the change since one year back.
The Vector Auto Regression analysis estimates a linear dynamic system containing a number of equations. The analysis can produce fitted values and forecasts for a number of and a number of statistics.
There is a new method in the Scalar analysis called “Percentage proportion” that for each series calculates the proportion of the sum at a specified point in time. This is used by the Bar chart, proportions Action.
When specifying a point in time there is a new type of relative reference that allows you to specify a relative length in the unit of the frequency that the series had before it was converted to a higher frequency. For instance, in a document with monthly data, specifying “-1n” for a quarterly series will refer to the value three months from the end. This is used by the Table, last value, c.o.p. Action.
You can now specify the display range for table presentations.
For frequencies other than daily, you can select if you want “labels” such as “2011 Q1” or dates for the observations.
We have added the capability to show lists of series in the data browser with more structure. This will primarily be used to present data more like the source in the “Economics – by source” view. We have started to add structure to some important sources such as
You can use the slider at the top to show all or only the top levels of the structure. The checkbox “Flat” will show the series in a long list as it used to be in older versions of the application.
When there are discontinued series in a document, you can bring up the Discontinued series dialog. For some series there may be information on why it has been discontinued. For some series there might even be suggestions for alternate series and you can choose to make a replacement.
In the Excel add-in you can now easily convert an ordinary Macrobond Data set to a Data set that contains an embedded Macrobond document. This makes it easier to use all the power of the Macrobond application, such as seasonal adjustment, for the data that you export to Excel.
When downloading time series by using the Macrobond Excel add-in, you can now select to make the series title a link to the Time series information in the Macrobond application.
There is a new method that can be used for filling in missing values called “Next value.” It fills in the missing value with the next valid value.
The 64-bit version of Macrobond now not only supports 64-bit versions of Office, MATLAB and EViews, but the Macrobond program also runs in 64-bit mode. This means that the application can take advantage of more than 2 GB RAM.
The following sample solutions should be treated as an example or starting point rather than a complete solution. The presented configuration might not be efficient for a large number of series or for series having very long history. If you already have your own time series database, you can use these examples as inspiration when creating configuration files with queries for your database.
In this example MS SQL is assumed as a database server, but with minimal adjustments, the sample can be used with other database servers. A suitable .NET Data Provider has to be installed for others. There are many possible options and settings not used in this example, so please carefully read the documentation at The Macrobond SQL Database Connector.
The sample configuration files contain further comments that might be of interest.
Metadata describing individual time series can be organized and reported to Macrobond in two different ways:
To use that sample and test that everything works, follow these steps:
For troubleshooting it can be helpful to enable the SQL Log Console in the Macrobond application. You will then see the SQL queries executed and results returned. It can be enabled via the Configuration > Settings > Advanced (for MB pre-1.28: Edit > Settings > Advanced).
To use the sample and test that everything works, please follow the steps described above but use:
To construct a dynamic series browser:
In this example you can use single identifiers that do not match the default ParameterName limitations (a-z, 0-9 and underscore) specifically being able to use spaces and upper-case letters. Please follow the steps described above but use:
