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 and select a Swing or AWT form from the Template Chooser. See Creating a New Form for more information.

To open an existing form (indicated by a node), double-click the form node in the Explorer, or right-click the node and choose Open from the contextual menu.

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

If the Component Inspector is closed, display it by clicking and choosing in the main window or choosing View and choosing Component Inspector.

On the right side of the main window 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 window where you want to place that component.

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

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