Patent ID: 7310164

Claim:
An external apparatus that transmits a plurality of print jobs to a printing control apparatus via a bi-direction communication line, said external apparatus comprising: a generation unit that generates a job; a transmitter that transmits the plurality of print jobs generated by said generation unit; a first receiver that receives a job identifier which is assigned to each print job by said printing control apparatus, wherein each job identifier is unique and not changed from generation until the print job is completed; a memory that stores the job identifier received by said first receiver; a second receiver that receives progressing page information indicating how many pages have been finished before a process of the print job is completed from said printing control apparatus, together with the job identifier of the print job; and a specifying unit that specifies a particular job's status including the progressing page information in accordance with correspondence between the job identifier received by said second receiver together with the progressing page information and the job identifier stored in said memory.