Java netbeans autoresize textarea

Question

I am using netbeans 7.0.1 to build a simple JFrame application

I am putting a textarea and a couple of buttons on using the gui builder

the buttons are on the same vertical level and the right hand button shifts right on resize of the window - that is fine but I would like the text area to do the same - i.e. resize to fit the relevant width of the window.

For the life of me I cannot see how this is done - I have looked around and I can find code for a hand coded app but not for netbeans gui builder

Answer 1

Update: Ah sorry, didn't read the full question, you really want to do it with netbeans.. :) Well, well, now you have this post how to do it hand-crafted aswell! :)

I wouldn't use an GUI builder for this task. It is easy to create such layout with FlowLayout and BorderLayout:

Screenshot was produced by this code:

public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
    JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test");

    JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.RIGHT));
    buttonPanel.add(new JButton("Hello"));
    buttonPanel.add(new JButton("World!"));

    frame.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
    frame.add(new JTextArea("Hello World!"), BorderLayout.CENTER);

    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    frame.setSize(600, 400);
    frame.setVisible(true);
}

Answer 2

It's all about the layout you're using. I would personally use GridBagLayout, probably because I am accustomed to it. Basically, you should follow these steps:

1. Change the layout of the container which owns the textarea to GridBagLayout. You can do that by right-clicking on the container(being it the JFrame, a panel, whatever) and there you will see the Layout menu. It contains a GridBagLayout option.
2. In the component inspector select the JScrollPane that owns the JTextArea. Check out the "Layout" section in the properties tab. It contains the GridBagConstraints which command the layout behaviour of the JScrollPane and thus commands the JTextArea.
3. Play with the layout properties :). Basically you should set the X and Y weight to 1, and the Fill to "Both". This will tell the JScrollPane to fill any vertical and horizontal space there is on the Frame, and the X and Y weight will pull any other components as far as possible.

You can read more about GridBagLayout here: http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/java/gbcustomizer-basic.html

Learning GridBagLayout could take a couple of hours, getting used to it could take a couple of days, but it's worth learning. Just my 2 cents.