Adding characters to the beginning of each line

Here is a batch file that will add a text string to the beginning of each line in a file.  This example reads file.txt and creates new_file.txt

REM Add text to the beginning of each record
REM Change $text to the correct string you want appended to each record

Echo off
cls
ECHO Processing Records - please wait
ECHO.

REM create a environmental variable with the text in it
  set $text=TEXT TO BE APPENDED

REM process FILE.TXT

      IF exist new_file.txt del new_file.txt

      setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
       set x=%$text%
      for /f "delims=" %%i in (file.txt) do (
        echo !x!%%i >> new_file.txt
      )

REM output file is new_file.txt

awesome. How would I extend this to add some text to the end of each line?

you just have to edit the echo line - this is where the text is combined with the record.  %%i represents the original record.  !x! is the new text.  

for example, to add the text at the end of the line you would change this to:

echo %%i!x! >> new_file.txt