A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY-keyboard and is enabled with disambiguation software. The device provides output in the form of a default output and a number of variants. The output is based upon frequency, i.e., the likelihood that a user intended a particular output, but various features of the device provide additional variants that are not based solely on frequency utilizing various logic structures resident on the device. The device enables editing during text entry and also provides a learning function allowing the disambiguation function to adapt to provide a customized user experience. The disambiguation function can be selectively disabled and an alternate keystroke interpretation system provided. If a field into which text is being entered is determined to be a special input field, a disambiguated result can be sought from a predetermined data source prior to seeking results from other data sources on the device.