PURPOSE: To effectively use of the data produced once in a document processing operation for the diverse purposes and to reduce the work load by using an interface that can have a direct access to the document data.

CONSTITUTION: A document processing means 1 is provided together with the document data 2, an individual application software 3, and a document interface I/F 4 that can have a direct access to the document data. Then the position information on the character data used for the diverse purposes are set as an argument among those existing document data. This argument is inputted to a character data extraction means together with the document data. Thus it is possible to take out the character data on the individual application software, etc., produced by a user, etc., which are used for the purposes of application except the document processing operation. As a result, the data 2 can be easily applied to the diverse purposes without turning the data 2 into the multi-purpose data via the means 1.