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What components should I use for building a Java WYSIWYG HTML editor

I’m a total newbie in Java programming. I have to do text editor in Swing/AWT and I have one question about it. How can I edit one selected word, for example change its color? Which component and which functions should I use?

Answer 1

For a beginner to Java Swing, try to keep this project simple. To show multiple colors and multiple sizes in the same document requires a lot of complex coding and rendering html.

Try to just provide the basic copy,cut,paste features because they are easier to implement.

To provide those features, a JTextArea is sufficient.

Try this. It’s a pretty simple text editor

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class Document extends JFrame implements ActionListener
{
private JTextArea ta;
private int count;
private JMenuBar menuBar;
private JMenu fileM,editM,viewM;
private JScrollPane scpane;
private JMenuItem exitI,cutI,copyI,pasteI,selectI,saveI,loadI,statusI;
private String pad;
private JToolBar toolBar;
public Document()
{
    super("Document");
    setSize(600, 600);
    setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    Container pane = getContentPane();
    pane.setLayout(new BorderLayout());

    count = 0;
    pad = " ";
    ta = new JTextArea(); //textarea
    menuBar = new JMenuBar(); //menubar
    fileM = new JMenu("File"); //file menu
    editM = new JMenu("Edit"); //edit menu
    viewM = new JMenu("View"); //edit menu
    scpane = new JScrollPane(ta); //scrollpane  and add textarea to scrollpane
    exitI = new JMenuItem("Exit");
    cutI = new JMenuItem("Cut");
    copyI = new JMenuItem("Copy");
    pasteI = new JMenuItem("Paste");
    selectI = new JMenuItem("Select All"); //menuitems
    saveI = new JMenuItem("Save"); //menuitems
    loadI = new JMenuItem("Load"); //menuitems
    statusI = new JMenuItem("Status"); //menuitems
    toolBar = new JToolBar();

    ta.setLineWrap(true);
    ta.setWrapStyleWord(true);

    setJMenuBar(menuBar);
    menuBar.add(fileM);
    menuBar.add(editM);
    menuBar.add(viewM);

    fileM.add(saveI);
    fileM.add(loadI);
    fileM.add(exitI);

    editM.add(cutI);
    editM.add(copyI);
    editM.add(pasteI);        
    editM.add(selectI);

    viewM.add(statusI);

    saveI.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_S, ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK));
    loadI.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_L, ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK));
    cutI.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_X, ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK));
    copyI.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_C, ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK));
    pasteI.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_V, ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK));
    selectI.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_A, ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK));

    pane.add(scpane,BorderLayout.CENTER);
    pane.add(toolBar,BorderLayout.SOUTH);

    saveI.addActionListener(this);
    loadI.addActionListener(this);
    exitI.addActionListener(this);
    cutI.addActionListener(this);
    copyI.addActionListener(this);
    pasteI.addActionListener(this);
    selectI.addActionListener(this);
    statusI.addActionListener(this);

    setVisible(true);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) 
{
    JMenuItem choice = (JMenuItem) e.getSource();
    if (choice == saveI)
    {
        //not yet implmented
    }
    else if (choice == exitI)
        System.exit(0);
    else if (choice == cutI)
    {
        pad = ta.getSelectedText();
        ta.replaceRange("", ta.getSelectionStart(), ta.getSelectionEnd());
    }
    else if (choice == copyI)
        pad = ta.getSelectedText();
    else if (choice == pasteI)
        ta.insert(pad, ta.getCaretPosition());
    else if (choice == selectI)
        ta.selectAll();
    else if (e.getSource() == statusI)
    {
        //not yet implmented
    }
}
public static void main(String[] args) 
{
    new Document();
}