The backslash identifies the LEDGER directory as a subdirectory of the root directory. Once you are in a directory, you can access any of the files it contains without typing the full pathname.

To change to a subdirectory of the current directory, you do not need to type the backslash. For example, if SALES is a subdirectory of LEDGER, then to change to the SALES directory while you are in LEDGER, you can type the following and press Enter:

CD SALES

To change from any directory to its parent directory (the directory of which it is a subdirectory), type the following and press Enter:

CD . .

The two periods are a special symbol that represents the parent directory.

To return to the root directory from any subdirectory, type the following and press Enter:

CD \

Copying From One Directory to Another

The COPY command lets you copy files from one directory to another. To use this command, you must specify the name of the file you want to copy, as well as the directory to which you want to copy the file.

For example, if you are in the LETTERS directory (see the diagram on page 5-6) and want to copy the file APRIL.TXT to the BUSINESS directory, type the following and press Enter:

copy APRIL.TXT \WORDPROC\BUSINESS

The command has three parts: the word COPY, the name of the file you want to copy (APRIL.TXT), and the name of the directory to which you want to copy this file ( \ WORDPROC\BUSINESS). You must include spaces or commas between each of the three parts. The space characters or commas are the delimiters in this command.

5-12 Using MS-DOS With Your Equity LT-286