PURPOSE: To easily provide the proper recognized result by interactively widening the range of candidate characters even when an inputting person can not get proper recognition candidates from a character written by himself in the case of using the on-line handwritten character input device.

CONSTITUTION: When candidate patterns are presented on a candidate pattern display part 101 and the candidate pattern of a character to be fixed is selected, the fixture of the character is indicated on a character output part 103. Next, a parts pattern is selected, the display of combination is indicated to a combined pattern lead-out part 104, the combined patterns concerning the prescribed parts pattern selected by the inputting person are led out of a pattern structure dictionary part 106 and dispatched to a candidate pattern lead-out part 101 by the lead-out part 104, and the combined patterns are displayed. The inputting person selects any pattern and repeatedly indicates the fixture of the character to the character output part 103 until the expected pattern appears. Then, the fixed character pattern is outputted by the character output part 103.