Form Editor

The Form Editor is a visual tool for creating and editing GUI code. A form is simply the container for all the items that make up a GUI.

To create a form, choose File and choose New from the main menu. Then expand the GUI Forms node and select a Swing, a Bean Form, or an AWT template from the Choose Template pane. See Creating a New Form for more information.

When a new form is saved, it is indicated by a Image of a form icon node in the Explorer. To open an existing form, you can do one of the following operations from the Explorer:

When a form is opened, the IDE switches to the GUI editing workspace and displays these windows:

The Form Designer pane presents the design-time view of the form. The Component Inspector pane displays the hierarchy of components on the active form, and the editable properties and events of each component.

Above the Form Designer area is the Component Palette. You can visually and dynamically add components to a form by clicking the desired component in the Component Palette, and then clicking in the area in the Form Designer where you want to place that component.

Tip You cannot visually edit classes developed in other development environments.
See also
Component Inspector
Component Palette
Source Editor
Testing a Form

Legal Notices