PEN BASED EDIT CORRECTION INTERFACE METHOD AND APPARATUS

A correction method for use with a pen based computer system includes the steps of receiving a insertion point coordinate; receiving an initial pen down coordinate corresponding to an initial pen down; receiving a present pen down coordinate corresponding to a present position of a pen; receiving a pen up coordinate corresponding to a pen up; defining an ordered set of points between and including the initial pen down coordinate and the pen up coordinate; determining a first time interval between the pen up and the initial pen down; determining a second time interval between the initial pen down and the present pen down; determining if the relative position of at least two of the initial pen down coordinate, the present pen down coordinate, the pen up coordinate, the first time interval, the second time interval and the ordered set of points corresponds to a set of pre-selected parameters which correspond to activation of one or a plurality of modes; and activating the mode. The different modes include input mode, punctuation mode, correction mode, edit mode and selection mode. A stroke or path drawn in a mode will be compared with a pre-selected groups of characters used in association with that mode. By dividing functions into different modes the reliability of recognition of the stroke will be increased.