Newbie question re NetBeans and GUI appearance

[MikeB]

I apologize. I expect this is the wrong forum to ask my question and
would appreciate a hint as to the appropriate forum to ask this
question in.

On the off chance that someone will answer, I will put my question
here as well.

I'm a student at university and we have to develop a GUI program with
NetBeans. I have managed to complete the layout of my frame and all
the components appear. However, the appearance is different depending
on how I display the frame. If, while in the IDE, I click on the
"Preview Design" icon, I see the frame rendered so that it looks
exactly like any other windows window on my computer. If I choose to
Run the application, I get a clunky, less nice appearance of the
window.

Can anyone point me to what/where I need to change things so the run-
time window is as nice-looking as the design-time window?

Thanks.
Mike

 

[Ike]

I think you need to set the size of the frame, and take into account
whatever layout manager you are using. -Ike

 

[Michael]

I'm a student at university and we have to develop a GUI program with
NetBeans. I have managed to complete the layout of my frame and all
the components appear. However, the appearance is different depending
on how I display the frame. If, while in the IDE, I click on the
"Preview Design" icon, I see the frame rendered so that it looks
exactly like any other windows window on my computer. If I choose to
Run the application, I get a clunky, less nice appearance of the
window.

It sounds like you need to set the look and feel:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/lookandfeel/
plaf.html
Basically, you'll need to add code as shown to your main function (or
some other such place). Presumably NetBeans is automatically doing
that in Preview Design mode.

Michael

 

[MikeB]

It sounds like you need to set the look and feel:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/lookandfeel/
plaf.html
Basically, you'll need to add code as shown to your main function (or
some other such place). Presumably NetBeans is automatically doing
that in Preview Design mode.

Michael

That was it! Thank you so much. It was a piece of cake to add it and
now my app looks the way I expect it to look.