Patent ID: 7556204

Claim:
An electronic apparatus having a user interface for symbol input, the apparatus comprising: a display; an input device having an elongated touch-sensitive sensor area and capable of detecting user actuations of a plurality of sensor positions along a main axis of said elongated touch-sensitive sensor area; and a processing device coupled to said display and said input device, wherein the processing device, in response to a user actuation of a current sensor position among said plurality of sensor positions of said input device, is configured to: determine, from said current sensor position, a current symbol position in a symbol sequence, and control said display to indicate a current symbol held by said current symbol position in said symbol sequence; and wherein the processing device is configured to control said display for presentment of said symbol sequence in a predetermined and fixed order, and to control said display to indicate said current symbol held by said current symbol position by marking it as available for selection; and wherein the processing device is configured to detect a first user actuation of a first sensor position of said input device, determine from the first sensor position a first symbol position holding a first symbol, and control the display to mark the first symbol as available for selection, and wherein the processing device is further configured to detect a second user actuation of said input device, determine from said first symbol position and said second user actuation a second symbol position holding a second symbol, and control the display to mark the second symbol as available for selection instead of the first symbol.