I'm just doing a quick compare of GNP and GDP, so WTF

I'm just doing a quick compare of GNP and GDP, so I figured I'd subject myself to the new FRED that is being introduced.

What's different, new to old, is that in the old system you pick your first data series, then you pick your second data series and put it with the first one, then you enter the calculation and yadda yadda. In the new system you pick your first data series, then either you go to the "put the second one with the first one" box or you go to the "figure a separate line" box, before adding the second data series. This is the biggest conceptual revision I've noticed so far in the new fred.

What would be nice would be, they should let you move or copy any of the data series from any box to any other box, or even to a new box. Eh, maybe in the 2018 revision huh?

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What else would be nice ...

Either
don't slow me down by regenerating the graph unnecessarily (like every time I add a data series)
Or
make it so the graph stays 'fixed' in the upper half of the screen, and the buttons on the left -- now that's a nice feature, the buttons to activate the boxes -- the buttons only change what happens on the lower half of the screen
Or maybe both.

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(idle thoughts, unfinished)

default image

I got GDP in the new revised fred and used SAVE/SHARE: EXPORT: IMAGE to see what the default would look like.

Here ya go:

Yeah that's useful.

For my econ blog I usually resize graphs to about 515 pixels wide.

Here is the default image, resized:

Why is it squat like that?

Can you read the numbers? Or is it more trouble than it's worth.

Oh, I can re-size the graph at FRED before I save the image. Of course. But it is an extra step. And it is two extra numbers that I have to remember. And I don't trust memory.

With the old FRED, the current FRED I mean, soon to be defunct probably for no reason that I can see, change for the sake of change, with the old FRED you could SAVE SETTINGS and it would remember the size of the graph and things like that. And then you could APPLY SETTINGS to make other graphs the same size. It didn't work very well, but at least it was an option. That option is apparently no longer available.

Here we go again...

FRED is redesigning their graph system, again.

Couple links with announcements

https://news.research.stlouisfed.org/2016/05/freds-new-look/

https://news.research.stlouisfed.org/2016/05/do-i-look-ok-weigh-in-on-freds-new-suit/

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For the record, they still have not fixed bugs in the previous new system (officially launched on 17 March 2014). Bugs in color selection and date selection. just off the top of my head.

Color selection works UNTIL you add a second series, like when you want to show a ratio. After you've got the two series and the calculation entered, you can't change the color of that line any more.

Date selection -- use the drag bar to set start- and end-dates, and it shows up correctly on the graph. Then get the link for your graph and open it in a new window, and it knows nothing of your date settings!

Eh, no matter. What matters is to make it "new". Keep changing the way the graphs look, and keep changing what you have to do to create them. Oh, and keep moving the controls so we have to hunt for them all the time.