Patent ID: 7375860

Claim:
A data processing method executed by a printer driver in a computer terminal which has an interface for connection to an image processing apparatus, wherein said image processing apparatus has print means for local printing of image data and transmission means for transmitting image data to a remote location, said method comprising: a first accepting step of accepting a document from an application program executing in said computer terminal; a displaying step of displaying a setting screen which displays configuration options for both a print setting and a transmission setting, wherein an end user can set either the transmission setting or the print setting, said displaying step being initiated by calling the printer driver in accordance with the end user's selection of a printing menu of the application program; a second accepting step of accepting the end user's selection of the transmission setting or the print setting from the setting screen; a selecting step of selecting whether the document accepted in said first accepting step is to be transmitted to a remote location by the transmission means of said image processing apparatus or printed locally by the print means of said image processing apparatus in accordance with the selection accepted from the end user in said second accepting step; a first setting step of setting the print setting in a case where said selecting step selects that the document is to be printed locally; a second setting step of setting the transmission setting including a destination in a case where said selecting step selects that the document is to be transmitted to a remote location; a converting step of converting the document accepted in said first accepting step into image data which is printable form; and a transferring step of transferring the image data converted in said converting step to said image processing apparatus, and for transferring either the print setting set in said first setting step or the transmission setting set in said second setting step to said image processing apparatus, so as to cause the print means of said image processing apparatus to print the image data locally or to cause the transmission means of said image processing apparatus to transmit the image data to a remote location in accordance with the selection in said selecting step.