Patent ID: 8531697

Claim:
An image forming system, comprising: a groupware server; and an image forming apparatus that functions as a groupware terminal, wherein the groupware server includes a plurality of document databases, each storing document data and attribute information corresponding to the document data, and an attribute database that stores pre-registered database attribute information corresponding to each of the document databases; the image forming apparatus accesses the attribute database to acquire and display, on an operations panel of the image forming apparatus, a list of the document databases; the image forming apparatus includes a selection unit that accepts selection of one of the displayed document databases as a selected document database; the image forming apparatus acquires design information related to the selected document database that is included in the pre-registered database attribute information of the selected document database and controls the operations panel of the image forming apparatus to display information items according to format information included in the design information, the format information being unique for each document database, wherein the pre-registered database attribute information for each document database includes information indicating which information items are to be displayed for the corresponding document database; the image forming apparatus includes a read unit that reads the document data and the corresponding attribute information corresponding to the document data stored in the selected document database, and a change unit that changes the corresponding attribute information read by the read unit into changed attribute information; and the groupware server stores the read document data and the changed attribute information in the selected document database.