System and Method for Simultaneously Commencing Output of Disparately Encoded Electronic Documents

Abstract

The subject application is directed to a system and method for simultaneously commencing output of disparately encoded electronic documents. Selection data representative of multiple electronic documents encoded in multiple disparate formats is first received. For example, the electronic documents are capable of being encoded in MICROSOFT OFFICE WORD, MICROSOFT OFFICE EXCEL, ADOBE ACROBAT formats, and the like. Each of the disparate formats is associated with a corresponding software module and then retrieved in accordance with received selection data. Next, the electronic documents are communicated to corresponding software modules, and the document processing device commences a selected document processing operation on each of the electronic documents by a corresponding software module. Each application-specific module is adapted for processing a document processing request for one or more types of documents that are associated with one specific application.

1 . A method comprising:
 respectively associating each of a plurality of documents with a software module from a plurality of software modules;   communicating each of the plurality of documents to the respective associated software module;   providing each of the associated software modules with common document output characteristics; and   commencing a document processing operation in accordance with the common document output characteristics on each of the plurality of documents using each of the associated software modules.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein each document of the plurality of documents is in one of a plurality of disparate document formats, each of the disparate document formats associated with a software module. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising outputting a notification that at least one of the plurality of documents is not associated with any software module. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising generating each of the plurality of documents in a selected order. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising providing the output of each software module to a common document output device. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  wherein each software module results in output of each of the plurality of documents having common document output characteristics. 
     
     
         7 . Apparatus comprising a storage medium storing a program having instructions which when executed by a processor will cause the processor to:
 respectively associate each of a plurality of documents with a software module from a plurality of software modules;   communicate each of the plurality of documents to the respective associated software module;   provide each of the associated software modules with common document output characteristics; and   commence a document processing operation on each of the plurality of documents having the common document output characteristics using each of the associated software modules.   
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 7  wherein each document of the plurality of documents is in one of a plurality of disparate document formats, each of the plurality of disparate document formats associated with a software module. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 7  wherein the instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to output a notification that at least one of the plurality of documents is not associated with any software module. 
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 7  wherein the instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to generate each of the plurality of documents in a selected order. 
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 7  wherein the instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to provide the output of each software module to a common document output device. 
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 11  wherein each software module results in output of each of the plurality of documents having common document output characteristics. 
     
     
         13 . A method comprising:
 confirming acceptance of a plurality of command line arguments representing common document output characteristics, each of the plurality of command line arguments associated with one of a plurality of documents using disparate encoding schemes;   identifying an application associated with each of the plurality of documents;   providing each of the plurality of documents to a document module associated with the application;   launching the application associated with each of the plurality of documents using the associated document module;   opening each of the plurality of documents using the application; and   initiating a document processing operation using the common document output characteristics.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising receiving a document processing request from a document processing device. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  further comprising communicating the command line arguments from the document processing device to a device driver. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising aborting the process when no application is associated with one of the plurality of documents. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising generating a log of the aborted process. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising reviewing each of the plurality of documents for viruses prior to identifying an application associated with each of the plurality of documents and aborting the process when a virus is detected. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18  further comprising generating a log of the aborted process.