According to the present invention, an automatic archiving system that
makes document archiving largely transparent to the user. In one
embodiment, documents scanned in or printed during the course of office
equipment operation are automatically archived. For example, an office
local area network (LAN) may interconnect a copier, a printer, a
facsimile machine, and a document management workstation. Whenever, a
document is copied, printed, or faxed, a document image is archived by
the document management workstation without further user intervention. A
single user command results in the document being copied and archived,
printed and archived, or faxed and archived.