11. A device for facilitating selection of textual characters, comprising: a user input, wherein a number of letters or character shapes are available for selection by a user; a memory, wherein said memory contains a table of characters; and a processor, wherein, in response to a selection of at least first and second character shapes, said processor executes instructions to perform a look up in said table in said memory to select a first set of characters, and wherein, in response to a selection of a subtraction mode by a user after the selection of the first character shape and prior to the selection of the second character shape, each character included in said first set of characters contains said first character shape and not said second character shape.
12. The device of claim 11 , further comprising: a user display, wherein said first set of characters includes a plurality of characters, and wherein at least some of said characters in said first set of characters are displayed on said user display.