Patent ID: 8488160

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a memory; a receiving unit that receives an instruction for creating a second storage area in the memory corresponding to a first storage area created by another image forming apparatus; a creating unit that creates, in the memory, the second storage area associated with information for identifying the other image forming apparatus in response to the receiving unit receiving the instruction to create the second storage area; an identifying unit that identifies the other image forming apparatus based on the information associated with the second storage area in response to receiving an instruction to output data from the second storage area, wherein the second storage area is a virtual storage area corresponding to the first storage area which is an actual storage area in the other image forming apparatus; a transmitting unit that transmits, to the identified other image forming apparatus, a document list requirement requesting document data list information stored in the first storage area corresponding to the second storage area; a display that displays the document data list information in response to receiving the document data list information from the identified other image forming apparatus, wherein the receiving unit receives an output instruction to output document data from among the displayed document data list information; and an output instruction unit that instructs the identified other image forming apparatus to output the document data in response to receiving the output instruction to output the document data from among the displayed document data list information.