Patent ID: 8199112

Claim:
An electronic device comprising: a display section; a dictionary storing section which stores dictionary data; a dictionary search section; a key input section comprising Latin alphabet keys, the key input section accepting input of a search character string for searching in a dictionary; a handwriting input section in which a touch position sensing unit and a display unit are integrated with each other; a setting section which sets one of handwriting input or pinyin input if a Chinese character is input; a handwriting input section display control section which (i) accepts input of a handwritten character in the handwriting input section when the handwriting input is set by the setting section, and (ii) displays, on the handwriting input section, a screen for accepting input of four-tone data when the pinyin input is set by the setting section; a recognized character input section which recognizes the handwritten character accepted by the handwriting input section display control section and input the recognized character as a search character when the handwriting input is set by the setting section; and a pinyin input section which accepts input of a Latin alphabet letter input by the key input section and the pinyin based on the four-tone data input by the handwriting input section as search letters and characters when the pinyin input is set by the setting section; wherein the dictionary search section searches the dictionary data based on the input by the pinyin input section or the recognized character input section and displays a search results.