The subject application is directed to a system and method for simultaneously commencing output of disparately encoded electronic documents. Selection data representative of multiple electronic documents encoded in multiple disparate formats is first received. For example, the electronic documents are capable of being encoded in MICROSOFT OFFICE WORD, MICROSOFT OFFICE EXCEL, ADOBE ACROBAT formats, and the like. Each of the disparate formats is associated with a corresponding software module and then retrieved in accordance with received selection data. Next, the electronic documents are communicated to corresponding software modules, and the document processing device commences a selected document processing operation on each of the electronic documents by a corresponding software module. Each application-specific module is adapted for processing a document processing request for one or more types of documents that are associated with one specific application.