MyHeritage Family Tree Builder's hour glass view can adjust from just one generation above and below the focus person to three generations. This eliminates the need for separate person, pedigree, and descendant views. There is a handy list for navigation just to the left which can be expanded or retracted out of the way.

MyHeritage automatically checks for possible duplicates when entering people. This feature mitigates the absence of a merge duplicate people tool. MyHeritage does offer the ability to merge relatives from other peoples trees on the MyHeritage.com website. Good tree consistency checker.

A button appears next to the place entry field when clicked will offer suggestions from similar places already appearing in your database. A pop-up calendar is available when entering dates. Supports Hebrew and French Revolution calendars.

Reports can be saved to HTML, RTF, and PDF format; charts, to PDF and JPEG. Supports a direct upload to the MyHeritage web site but no other independent web site creation. Imports GEDCOM format files. Will offer to create GEDCOM files directly from several other formats.

Marriage is assumed for parents but can be changed to another type of status such as Friends, Engaged, or Other. Gender need not be specified for parents or married couples, e.g. a marriage can be entered for J. Roe and A. Smith with both listed as unknown gender and "husband."

UTF-8 character encoding is supported.

No place or individual person reports.

The PDF format manual is very helpful substitute for context sensitive help.

Launches MyHeritage.com in a browser window on every program launch and displays nag screens when options unavailable in the free version are selected. Registration adds your email to several mailing lists. Some features require syncing to MyHeritage.com. (See note below)

No merge tools. No individual or place reports. No date calculator. Can not create a complete web site file set for upload to a third party site. Only one source format.

Requires registration with MyHeritage.com web site (See note below).

Please note that the MyHeritage online website was not recommended in my companion review of the Best Free Online Genealogy and Family Tree Applications. I felt that the online limit of 250 people was too constraining.