Patent ID: 7565624

Claim:
A method of enabling input on a handheld electronic device comprising a memory having stored therein a plurality of characters and a plurality of segments, the segments each comprising a plurality of the characters, the method comprising: receiving as a first entry a plurality of first inputs, at least some of the first inputs each corresponding with a number of the characters; comparing at least a portion of the first entry with at least some of the segments to identify for each of at least some of the first inputs a proposed first character of the characters with which the first input corresponds; outputting the proposed first characters; for at least one of the first inputs, detecting as an editing input a replacement of the proposed first character with another first character with which the first input corresponds; responsive to said detecting, storing as a candidate character string a string of characters comprising the another first character and a number of the proposed first characters output adjacent thereto; receiving as a second entry a plurality of second inputs, at least some of the second inputs each corresponding with a number of the characters; comparing at least a portion of the second entry with at least some of the segments to identify for each of at least some of the second inputs a proposed second character of the characters with which the second input corresponds; outputting the proposed second characters; for at least one of the second inputs, detecting as an editing input a replacement of the proposed second character with another second character with which the second input corresponds; making a determination that a series of characters comprising the another second character and a number of proposed second characters output adjacent thereto sequentially match at least a portion of the candidate character string, the at least portion of the candidate character string comprising the another first character and at least a subset of the number of proposed first characters; and responsive to said making a determination, storing the series of characters as a segment.