1. A text retrieval method using a text database holding at least one text, character recognizing means for recognizing a handwritten character string, a processing unit and output means for outputting a retrieved result, the method comprising the steps of: (a) extracting at least one proposed recognized character for each character by a method of extracting a predetermined proposed recognized character from recognized characters of respective characters of a keyword recognized by said character recognizing means; (b) generating at least one character string by combining proposed recognized characters of said respective characters; (c) generating a retrieval command for retrieving a text including at least said one character string among said generated character strings out of said text database; (d) executing said retrieval command; (e) detecting the number of cases among the texts in said text database in which each of said character strings generated from said proposed recognized characters is included; (f) holding said number of cases for each of said character strings; (g) when respective characters forming said character string included in the most texts are different from the first proposed characters of the corresponding characters recognized by said means of recognizing characters, presenting to an end user to that effect through said output means; (h) presenting to the end user whether the first proposed characters of the characters recognized by said means of recognizing characters are to be corrected to the characters forming said character string or not; and (i) correcting said recognized character string to said character string based on a direction of correction from the end riser.