Patent ID: 7619762

Claim:
A method for customizing the operation of a multi-function device, comprising the steps of: providing a multi-function device and a document server, the multi-function device having two or more built-in functions taken from a group consisting of: copying, printing, faxing, scanning, and e-mailing, and the multi-function device having a graphical user interface displaying icons representing the built-in functions, wherein the user may activate the icons to command the multi-function device to perform the associated built-in function; identifying a business purpose having specialized needs; and customizing at least one of the built-in functions and the associated icons displayed on the graphical user interface based upon the specialized needs of the identified business purpose, wherein the customizing step includes the following steps: accessing an additional function beyond the built-in functions stored on the document server in the form of a sequence operations to be performed by at least one of the multi-function unit and the document server; associating a graphical image with the additional function; transmitting from the document server to the multi-function unit at least a portion of the sequence of operations and the graphical image associated with the additional function; storing the portion of the sequence of operations and the graphical image by the multi-function unit in memory; and adding an additional icon to the graphical user interface of the multi-function unit, the additional icon including at least a portion of the graphical image transmitted to the multi-function unit from the document server, and linking the additional icon to the portion of the sequence of operations stored in memory such that activation of the additional icon initiates execution of the portion of the sequence of operations.