A copying machine including a visual display medium for visually displaying sentences corresponding to the machine operating status and operator instructions for curing machine malfunctions, such as a paper jam. The copying machine includes a sentence display control section which generates signals, representing the sentence or sentences to be displayed, to a drive section which controls the machine display. A machine status signal determines the sentence display control section signals supplied to the drive section. To overcome limitations imposed on sentence length by the limited machine display size, the sentence display control section is provided with means to divide long sentences into sections and to cause the machine display to display long sentences sequentially in a time division manner. A further feature allows multiple short sentences, each capable of being displayed in its entirety on the machine display, to be displayed in preselected sequences, at predetermined times and for predetermined time intervals.

A document processing apparatus includes a keyboard for inputting character data, a display unit for displaying the character data input by the keyboard, a mode setting device for setting a plurality of kinds of mode information, a detector for detecting the turning on of a power supply of the apparatus, and a central processing unit for controlling the displaying of the mode information set by the mode setting device on the display when the detector detects the turning on of the power supply of the apparatus.

A visual display system having a restricted data display capability incorporating a main buffer store (1) having a storage capacity for data lines greater than the display line capacity of the display (2). Status information signals from a control unit 14 are associated with each line of data as it is introduced into the display so that when the display is scrolled or racked to free data display lines for new data--the status signal effectively decides whether a line of data is discarded or fed into the main buffer store (1).

A net database retains, for each user, information about a portable terminal and user information including designation of a destination of electronic mail. A determination module determines whether the contents of electronic mail received by a mail server are displayable at the portable terminal of a destination user. If it is determined that the contents are displayable, the electronic mail is sent to the portable terminal of the destination user. If it is determined that the contents are not displayable, the determination module determines the destination of the electronic mail in accordance with the user information. A conversion module converts the electronic mail data into a form outputtable at the destination. The converted data is provided to the destination apparatus, and a notification representing this is notified to the portable terminal.

A net database retains a user conversion setting table for designating the destination of electronic mail for each user. Based on the contents of the user conversion setting table of the user, a determination module determines the destination of electronic mail received via a mail server. The determination module uses an appropriate conversion module to convert the data of the electronic mail so as to match the output format of the destination. The determination module provides the converted data to the designated destination. Since the contents of the transmission information are converted into a data format corresponding to the capacity of a receiving-side terminal, appropriate information can be provided to the receiving-side terminal.