Patent ID: 7193735

Claim:
An image forming apparatus which can be connected to a sheet processing apparatus having a plurality of sheet storage trays of which positions are changeable, and has a plurality of operation modes including at least two modes from among a copy mode, an image communication mode, and a printer mode, said apparatus, comprising: first setting means for setting a relationship between each of operation modes and each of sheet storage trays, where, when the image forming apparatus works in an operation mode, a sheet storage tray assigned to the working operation mode is moved to an output position of the sheet processing apparatus; second setting means for manually setting one operation mode from among the operation modes as an auto-clear mode and storing information specifying the operation mode set as the auto-clear mode; determination means for determining whether a no-operation state by an operator continues for a predetermined time after the processing of an operation mode has been completed; auto-clear operation means for automatically setting the image forming apparatus to the operation mode set as the auto-clear mode on the basis of a determination result of said determination means; and control means for, in response to said auto-clear operation means, controlling the sheet processing apparatus so as to change the position of a sheet storage tray, which is assigned to the operation mode as the auto-clear mode, to the output position of the sheet processing apparatus, so that the sheet storage tray can store a sheet even if not receiving a job data for the operation mode set as the auto-clear mode.