1. A system for simultaneously commencing output of disparately encoded electronic documents comprising: a document processing device including a processor and associated data storage; means adapted for receiving, into the document processing device, selection data representative of a plurality of different user-selected electronic documents, each of the plurality of documents being encoded in a unique one of a plurality of disparate formats; association means adapted for associating each of the plurality of disparate formats with at least one software module; means adapted for retrieving the plurality of user-selected electronic documents in accordance with received selection data; means adapted for communicating each of the plurality of user-selected electronic documents to one of a plurality of corresponding software modules in accordance with an output of the association means; means adapted for acquiring common document output characteristics associated with each of the plurality of user-selected electronic documents; means adapted for communicating configuration data corresponding to acquired document output characteristics to each of a plurality of unique software modules in a format compatible thereto; and document processor means adapted for commencing a selected document processing operation on each of a series of the user-selected electronic documents by calling a sequence of the software modules, with each module corresponding to one of the series of user-selected electronic documents such that each module is operative in accordance with the common document output characteristics.
1. A system for simultaneously commencing output of disparately encoded electronic documents comprising: a document processing device including a processor and associated data storage; means adapted for receiving, into the document processing device, selection data representative of a plurality of different user-selected electronic documents, each of the plurality of documents being encoded in a unique one of a plurality of disparate formats; association means adapted for associating each of the plurality of disparate formats with at least one software module; means adapted for retrieving the plurality of user-selected electronic documents in accordance with received selection data; means adapted for communicating each of the plurality of user-selected electronic documents to one of a plurality of corresponding software modules in accordance with an output of the association means; means adapted for acquiring common document output characteristics associated with each of the plurality of user-selected electronic documents; means adapted for communicating configuration data corresponding to acquired document output characteristics to each of a plurality of unique software modules in a format compatible thereto; and document processor means adapted for commencing a selected document processing operation on each of a series of the user-selected electronic documents by calling a sequence of the software modules, with each module corresponding to one of the series of user-selected electronic documents such that each module is operative in accordance with the common document output characteristics. 3. The system for simultaneously commencing output of disparately encoded electronic documents of claim 1 further comprising means adapted for outputting data representative of an event wherein at least one of the plurality of user-selected electronic documents has no software module associated therewith.