Patent ID: 7158253

Claim:
A printing control apparatus that receives a plurality of print jobs sent from an external apparatus via a bi-directional communication line and processes the plurality of print jobs, said print control apparatus comprising: a storage that stores the plurality of print jobs; an assigner that generates and assigns a job identifier to each print job stored in said storage, wherein each job identifier is unique and not changed from generation until the print job is completed; and a transmitter that transmits to the external apparatus, upon receipt of a print job from the external apparatus, the job identifier of the print job, wherein said transmitter transmits status information including progressing page information indicating how many pages have been discharged before a process of the print job is completed, together with the job identifier of the print job, and said external apparatus stores the job identifier transmitted by said transmitter in a memory and specifies a particular job's status including the progressing page information in accordance with correspondence between the job identifier transmitted by said transmitter with the status including the progressing page information and the job identifier stored in the memory.