Swing

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Create professional-looking Swing GUIs with automatic spacing and alignment.

GUI Builder

Design Swing GUIs by dragging and positioning GUI components from a palette onto a canvas. The GUI builder automatically takes care of the correct spacing and alignment. Click into JLabels, JButtons, ButtonGroups, JTrees, JTextFields, ComboBoxes and edit their properties directly in place.

You can use the GUI builder to prototype GUIs right in front of customers.

Introduction to GUI Building
Java GUI Applications Learning Trail
Designing a Swing GUI in NetBeans IDE

Component Palette

The extensible Component Palette comes with pre-installed Swing and AWT components and includes a visual menu designer. Drag components from the palette and drop them onto the canvas.

Use the Navigator to view a component's tree and properties.

Visual Debugger

Debug a Swing GUI application without looking into the source code and control the execution flow in terms of high-level structures.

Choose "Take GUI Snapshot" to make a screenshot of the application GUI that serves as a basis of the Visual Debugger functionality.

Using the Visual Debugger in NetBeans IDE

NetBeans Platform

The NetBeans Platform is a generic framework for Java desktop applications. It provides the "plumbing" that every developer normally needs to write themselves — saving state, connecting actions to menu items, toolbar items and keyboard shortcuts, window management, and so on.

The NetBeans Platform provides all of these out of the box. You don't need to manually code these or other basic application features yourself. The NetBeans Platform does not add a lot of overhead to your application — but it can save a huge amount of time and work.

NetBeans Platform Learning Trail

See Also

• NetBeans IDE 8.1 Release Page for a list of highlighted features in the latest stable release.
• General Java Development Learning Trail for tutorials that will help you get started.