In a document management method and apparatus of the invention, data of a paper document to which revision data are added are acquired, and data of a document file corresponding to the paper document are acquired based on document-file identification information that identifies the document file. Difference data indicating differences between the data of the paper document and the data of the document file are extracted. The revision data contained in the difference data, revision attribute information concerning the revision data, and the document file are associated so that the document file is managed with the association.