Abstract: A phrase retrieving/selecting method, in which a first condition for retrieving is set, a plurality of candidate conditions for retrieving used for setting other conditions for retrieving in addition to the set first condition for retrieving are displayed, any candidate condition for retrieving is specified and set from the displayed plurality of candidate conditions for retrieving as a second condition for retrieving, and the required phrase is retrieved and selected from a text expression dictionary according to the first and second conditions for retrieving, and a result of retrieving and selecting is displayed.

Abstract: The present invention comprises a Chinese character information outputting step for outputting Chinese character information corresponding to an input arbitrary character string by referring to a Chinese dictionary in which Chinese character information comprising a command and/or at least one Chinese character correlated to a character string. Chinese character information is received from the Chinese character information outputting step and the correlated Chinese character is displayed as a candidate for conversion in a list. The present invention includes a selecting step of selecting a desired Chinese character or a command from the Chinese character information displayed in the list and a determining step for determining which of a Chinese character and a command has been selected. The command is executed when a command has been selected and the input character string is replaced with Chinese characters displayed when it is determined in the determining step that a Chinese character has been selected.