ECHO--Notes Using a message with the ECHO command The ECHO message command is useful when ECHO is off. To display a message that is several lines long without displaying other commands, you can include several ECHO message commands after the ECHO OFF command in your batch program. Hiding the command prompt If you use the ECHO OFF command on the command line, the command prompt does not appear on your screen. To redisplay the command prompt, type ECHO ON. Preventing MS-DOS from echoing a line You can insert an at sign (@) in front of a command in a batch program to prevent MS-DOS from echoing that line. Echoing a blank line To echo a blank line on the screen, you can type ECHO and then a period (ECHO.). There must be no intervening space. Displaying pipes and redirection characters You cannot display a pipe (|) or redirection character (< or >) by using the ECHO command.