The purpose of the Navy Filing Manual , Fourth Edition, , was to provide a uniform, efficient, and time saving method for recording, filing and finding correspondence. Although the categories evolved over time with various editions of the manual and updates, the essential elements of this system remained in use from until the s. You should also note that the various Navy bureaus were permitted to elaborate on these groups and at times published their own more detailed versions of the manual.
Millions of pages of records are stored and accessed using this system in the U. In this online version of the manual we have attempted to keep the flavor of the original layout while taking advantage of the Web's universal accessibility. The original manual consists of pages of listings by group, followed by pages of the same information sorted as an alphabetical index.
The computer search capability has made the index largely redundant and has not been included in this online version. This text was captured with the use of optical character recognition software. This creates errors that are compounded while encoding for the Web. Be especially alert for missing lines, "l" and "1" confused, "O" and "0" confused.
Please report any typos, or particularly annoying layout issues with the Mail Feedback Form for correction. Note that a multi-page fast loading version of the same content is also available if you are using a slow or expensive internet access. The Secretary of the Navy, on July 5, , directed that the Navy Filing Manual as compiled by the Board appointed for the purpose be adopted for use and placed in effect throughout the entire Naval Service with the exception of the United States Marine Corps.
The original edition of the Navy Filing Manual was followed by the issuance to the naval service in of the second edition, and in of the third edition of the manual. This fourth edition of the Navy Filing Manual, in which are incorporated additions and changes made since the issuance of the third edition in , supersedes all previous editions of the manual and shall be placed in effect in the Naval Service upon receipt.
