I Need Some Project Improvment Ideas

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06-21-2011, 07:02 PM
Dark

I Need Some Project Improvement Ideas

So just as a fun little side project to help instill what I've learned in the past few chapters of my book I am making a notepad clone.

I don't think its really finished yet, but it has very similar functionality to notepad. Right now I have the following menus and their sub trees.

Code:

+File -New -Save -Save As -Open +Font Size -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10 -12 -14 -16 -18 -20 -22 -24 +Font Type -Sans Serif -Serif -Monospaced -Arial -Calibri -Courier New +Font Style -Plain -Bold -Italic

Does anyone have any ideas on what I could add that would make it better?

Right now I'm trying to make it resizeable, and from what I can find on the internet making a JTextArea resizeable on the window is rather long and tedious. If anyone has any ideas on how to accomplish this easier than a GridBagLayout I would be much obliged.
06-21-2011, 07:15 PM
sunde887

You can switch from a jtextarea to a jtextpane, this will allow functionality like a text editor, however; it gets quite a bit more difficult.

As to the resizing issue, what happens if you use a borderlayout? What components do you have besides the text area? The menu bar should stick to the top regardless if you use setJMenuBar.
06-21-2011, 07:20 PM
KevinWorkman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark

Right now I'm trying to make it resizeable, and from what I can find on the internet making a JTextArea resizeable on the window is rather long and tedious. If anyone has any ideas on how to accomplish this easier than a GridBagLayout I would be much obliged.

What's long and tedious about it? I just threw together an example (put a JTextArea inside a JScrollPane in a JFrame) and it seems to work okay. What am I missing?
06-21-2011, 07:43 PM
Dark

@Sunde does a JTextPane allow individual formatting? Like bolding a selection instead of the whole thing?

@KevinWorkman I want the JTextArea to be the same size as the window at all times. Right now I only have a JTextArea and a MenuBar, but since JTextArea's use columns and rows instead of pixels I have no idea on how to make a simple resizing method. The only one I could find on Google was a GridBoxLayout.
06-21-2011, 07:53 PM
DarrylBurke

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark

does a JTextPane allow individual formatting? Like bolding a selection instead of the whole thing?

Have you read the API? Have you gone through the tutorial?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark

I want the JTextArea to be the same size as the window at all times. Right now I only have a JTextArea and a MenuBar, but since JTextArea's use columns and rows instead of pixels I have no idea on how to make a simple resizing method. The only one I could find on Google was a GridBoxLayout.

Don't try to make a 'simple resizing method' just use an appropriate layout manager.

db
06-21-2011, 08:00 PM
Dark

I haven't read anything about the JTextPane, the first time I heard of it is when Sunde mentioned it. Thus my question, however I will have to look more into it.

Hmm, I added my JTextArea to a JPanel. Are you suggesting that if I use a BorderLayout instead of a FlowLayout it will simply adjust itself whenever I resize my window? Hmm, I didn't think about that. Off to try it out.

EDIT: Thank you very much for the suggestion, I didn't even think about that. Using a BorderLayout would allow me to create a JTextArea without defining a specific set of columns and rows too. I can't believe I forgot about this, seeing as I learned about it right before IO streams and Buffers.