USING COLOR WITH THE DOS PROMPT COMMAND You can adjust your color television so that the picture appears in black and white, but to do so would be foolish. Most people figure that once they've invested in a color television, they should view the broadcasts in color. Unfortunately, many computer users run DOS commands in a black and white mode. This does not happen because they think it is a great idea, but because it is the default, and they are unaware of how to change the setting. Major applications run in color, but DOS reverts to the white on black settings. Some utilities--like Norton Utilities--offer options for changing colors. But there is an easier method. The PROMPT command allows you to specify the colors you want to use when working in DOS. You can change the foreground/background combination for your prompt, including blinking options and different combinations in the same line. I've outlined the poorly documented color commands that PROMPT uses below. Note that the foreground color is a number in the 40's, and the background color is a number in the 30's. Note that the only difference is the first digit in each case. Foreground: Black=30; Red=31; Green=32; Yellow=33; Blue=34; Magenta=35; Cyan=36; White=37 Background: Black=40; Red=41; Green=42; Yellow=44; Blue=44; Magenta=45; Cyan=46; White=47 To use the PROMPT command, you must bracket the foreground/background colors with an escape sequence. The sequence begins with the $e[ (dollar sign+lower case e+left bracket)and ends with m (letter m). You separate the two color statements with a semi-colon. For example, a prompt with red text on a white background would look like this: PROMPT $e[31;47m Most users type in $p$g to generate the directory and the greater than symbol (>). You can combine them in the same statement: PROMPT $e[31;47m$p$g If you want, you can change colors more than once. Suppose you want the directory to be red on white, but you want the greater than sign to be blue on white. Your prompt would look like this: PROMPT $e[31;47m$p$e[34;47m$g You can also add a third attribute that will turn on bold, underscore, blink, reverse video, or an attribute called concealed. The values for these are: 0=all attributes off; 1=bold; 4=underscore; 5=blink on; 7=reverse video on; 8=concealed on The command: PROMPT $e[31;47;1m will give you a red on white display with bold characters. The following command will display your directory in blinking characters and the rest of the display will be normal: PROMPT $e[31;47;5m$p$e[0m$e[31;47m$g If you turn on attributes that scramble your screen and you want to start over without rebooting, type: PROMPT $e[0m$p$g Experiment to find combinations you like. You can either enter the PROMPT command in AUTOEXEC.BAT or create different .BAT files for an assortment of prompts. --Jim Levitt, Wahpeton IBM-PC User Group