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When i increase my GUI window size to full the components go back to standard layout

When i increase the window size to full, my components goes back to standard layout(jtable,button1,button2,button3) and so on. so i wonder if my code is right and how i can decrease the window size.
JTabbedPane jtabbed = new JTabbedPane(JTabbedPane.TOP);
JPanel panel=new JPanel();
tabellinnhold = new DefaultTableModel(defaulttabell,kolonnenavn);
posttabell = new JTable(tabellinnhold);
rullefelt = new JScrollPane(posttabell);
koble = new JButton("koble til");
lukke = new JButton("lukke");
hente = new JButton("Hente data");
avslutt = new JButton("Avslutt");
panel.add(rullefelt,BorderLayout.CENTER);
panel.add(koble,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
panel.add(lukke,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
panel.add(hente,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
panel.add(avslutt,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
//action listener
koble.addActionListener(this);
lukke.addActionListener(this);
hente.addActionListener(this);
avslutt.addActionListener(this);
jtabbed.add("se post",panel);
add(jtabbed);
//////////////////////////////////////////////////
Grensesnitt p = new Grensesnitt();
p.setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
p.GUIcode();
p.setTitle("title");
p.setSize(500,700);
p.setVisible(true);

JPanel panel=new JPanel();
...
panel.add(rullefelt,BorderLayout.CENTER);
panel.add(koble,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
panel.add(lukke,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
panel.add(hente,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
panel.add(avslutt,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
The default layout manager for a JPanel is a FlowLayout which will simply display all the components on a single line.
You can't just use the BorderLayout constraints and expect it to work.
If you want to use a BorderLayout then the code should be:
//JPanel panel=new JPanel();
JPanel panel=new JPanel( new BorderLayout() );
Also, you can't add 4 components to the "SOUTH" of the BorderLayout. You can only add a single component. So you need to create a child panel and add your components to that first:
JPanel south = new JPanel();
south.add(koble);
south.add(lukke);
south.add(hente);
south.add(avslutt);
panel.add(south, Borderlayout.SOUTH);
Read the section from the Swing tutorial on Using Layout Manager for more information and working examples to get you started.
Keep a link to the tutorial handy for examples of all Swing basics.

Adding components via code

I'm trying to have painted into a JPanel (which is inside a ScrollPane), a bunch of labels and RadioButtons, dynamically. I receive an ArrayList with "Advice" objects, and I want to iterate over them to represent them in a way I have a label that describes them, and then, two radio buttons (to choose "Yes" or "No").
But at the moment, with this code at the JFrame's constructor, it's not properly working:
// My constructor
public CoachingFrame(AdvicesManager am) {
initComponents();
this.am = am;
// I set the layout for the inner panel (since ScrollPane doesn't allow BoxLayout)
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
// Iterate over the arraylist
for(int i=0;i<am.advices.size();i++){
//Add elements to the panel
panel.add(new JLabel( am.advices.get(i).getQuestion()));
ButtonGroup group = new ButtonGroup();
// Group the RadioButtons inside another panel, so I can use FlowLayout
JPanel buttonsPanel = new JPanel();
buttonsPanel.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
JRadioButton rad1 = new JRadioButton();
JRadioButton rad2 = new JRadioButton();
group.add(rad1);
group.add(rad2);
buttonsPanel.add(rad1);
buttonsPanel.add(rad2);
// Add the radiobuttons' panel to the main one, and revalidate
panel.add(buttonsPanel);
panel.revalidate();
}
// Finally, add the panel to the ScrollPane.
questions.add(panel);
}
I receive the arraylist correctly; I already checked that. The problem seems to be when painting the components.
Since I always use the NetBeans GUI creator, I'm not very used to add components via code. Can someone help me? I guess I'm missing something here.
edit: Note that "questions" is the ScrollPane object!
edit 2: This "questions" panel should have all those components painted: http://i.imgur.com/tXxROfn.png

As Kiheru said, ScrollPane doesn't allow views (like my JPanel) to be added with .add(), instead, I had to use .setViewportView(Component). Now it's working perfectly, thank you!

Java: What Layout Manager would be best for a game menu?

===================
Game Name
Play
Exit
===================
the above is what my previous game menu looked like. I used the Box Layout to create it but it was very tedious. Is there there a better layout manager that I could use?
here is the code for those that asked of the main pane.
private JButton JB;
private JButton EB;
private JOptionPane JO;
public StartUpWindow(){
super("Pong");
JPanel outside = new JPanel();
JPanel inside = new JPanel();
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
outside.setLayout(new BoxLayout(outside, BoxLayout.LINE_AXIS));
inside.setLayout(new BoxLayout(inside, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
outside.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(280));
outside.add(inside);
outside.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(20));
inside.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(20));
JLabel title = new JLabel(" "+"Pong");
title.setFont( new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 40));
inside.add(title);
inside.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(20));
JButton btt1 = new JButton("Start");
Dimension d = new Dimension(200,40);
btt1.setSize(d);
btt1.setMinimumSize(d);
btt1.setMaximumSize(d);
btt1.setPreferredSize(d);
JButton btt2 = new JButton("Credits");
btt2.setSize(d);
btt2.setMinimumSize(d);
btt2.setMaximumSize(d);
btt2.setPreferredSize(d);
JButton btt3 = new JButton("Exit");
btt3.setSize(d);
btt3.setMinimumSize(d);
btt3.setMaximumSize(d);
btt3.setPreferredSize(d);
inside.add(btt1);
btt1.addActionListener(this);
btt1.setActionCommand("start");
inside.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(5));
inside.add(btt2);
btt2.addActionListener(this);
btt2.setActionCommand("credits");
inside.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(5));
inside.add(btt3);
btt3.addActionListener(this);
btt3.setActionCommand("exit");
inside.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(20));
add(outside);
this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
this.setSize(800,600);
this.setVisible(true);
this.setResizable(false);
this.setLocation(450,200);
inside.setBackground(Color.GRAY);
outside.setBackground(Color.GRAY);
}

I agree that BoxLayout is tedious but I admire its relative simplicity.
Another quick and easy option is to use the "javax.swing.Box" class instead of using a layout manager directly.
Box box = Box.createVerticalBox();
box.add(new JLabel("Game"));
box.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(20));
box.add(new JLabel("Button 1"));
box.add(new JLabel("Button 2"));
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.add(box);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
Box offers a number of useful methods. You can use it to create vertical and horizontal boxes, create "struts" to reserve horizontal and vertical space, and create "glue" to fill in available space when the layout grows.
Of course you could also use GridBagLayout, but I tend to reserve it for more complex layouts. Box and his cousin BoxLayout are often good enough for simple layouts and are easy for new programmers who are maintaining the application to understand and debug.

Why not simply use no layout and instead draw everything using a Graphics object?
You could easily achieve this by creating a BufferStrategy bound to the Window object (invoke createBufferStrategy on the latter) then call a few simple methods to easily redraw the screen.
This also means it's simpler to then code the game's display when you're playing it.
BufferStrategy also allows the use of page flipping and other forms of buffering when the application is in fullscreen exclusive mode, allowing it to refresh the screen very rapidly in many applications.

Java Swing panel layered on top with centered text

I'm making a simple Jeopardy-esque game:
using Java Swing. It's obviously a JFrame with a JPanel in it and buttons in rows.
Now what I need is to add a layered panel with a centered and wrapped text in it:
Which I can remove later. I already tried using JTextPane and JTextArea and JPanel, none of those want to even display. The best effect I have achieved with AWT Panel, it does display but I can't center or wrap text in it.
Here's some code for which I appologise, I would usually try to make it short and readable but since it's not working I don't know what to do with it to make ti look better:
JLabel questionLabel = new JLabel(questionList.get(randomNumber).getQuestion(), SwingConstants.CENTER);
Font font = new Font("Arial", Font.PLAIN, 20);
//------------------JTextPane--------------------
JTextPane questionPane = new JTextPane();
questionPane.setForeground(Color.WHITE);
questionPane.setSize(gameWidth, gameHeight);
questionPane.setText(questionList.get(randomNumber).getQuestion());
questionPane.setFont(font);
questionPane.setEditable(false);
//------------------AWT panel--------------------
Panel awtPanel = new Panel();
awtPanel.setBackground(Color.blue);
awtPanel.setSize(game.getWidth(),game.getHeight());
Label labelQuestion = new Label("<html>" + questionList.get(randomNumber).getQuestion() + "</html>", Label.CENTER);
labelQuestion.setFont(font);
awtPanel.setForeground(Color.white);
awtPanel.add(labelQuestion);
//------------------JPanel-----------------------
JPanel layeredPanel = new JPanel();
layeredPanel.setBackground(Color.blue);
layeredPanel.setSize(game.getWidth(),game.getHeight());
JLabel jLabelQuestion = new JLabel("<html>" + questionList.get(randomNumber).getQuestion() + "</html>", SwingConstants.CENTER);
jLabelQuestion.setFont(font);
layeredPanel.setForeground(Color.WHITE);
layeredPanel.add(jLabelQuestion, BorderLayout.CENTER);
game.getLayeredPane().add(layeredPanel, JLayeredPane.DEFAULT_LAYER);
try {
Thread.sleep(3000);
} catch (InterruptedException e1) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e1.printStackTrace();
}
button.setEnabled(false);
font = new Font("Arial", Font.PLAIN, 16);
button.add(jLabelQuestion, BorderLayout.CENTER);
button.setDisabledIcon(new ImageIcon(source.getScaledInstance(gameWidth/4, gameHeight/5, java.awt.Image.SCALE_SMOOTH)));
questionList.remove(randomNumber);
logger.info(questionList.size());
game.getLayeredPane().remove(layeredPanel);
UPDATE: I chnaged to SWT rather than Swing, and I use the StackLayout with a few Composites in it, and just change between them as I see fit.

You can generally solve issues like this with a JLabel.
I would recommend encapsulating the above grid in the BorderLayout.CENTER of another pane, perhaps a new content pane. Then, add the caption to BorderLayout.NORTH.
As a more tangible example,
private void createContent() {
this.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
//establish the panel currently set as center, here labeled "everythingElse"
this.getContentPane().add(everythingElse, BorderLayout.CENTER);
//Create a JLabel with your caption
JLabel jlbl = new JLabel("Question");
//format that caption, most details being rather obvious, but most importantly:
jlbl.setHorizontalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER); //keeps text centered
this.getContentPane().add(jlbl, BorderLayout.NORTH); //add it to the top of the panel
//...other cleanup operations...
}
The issue with grid panes is that they have a limited tolerance for the number of components visible in them. If you overload one, it won't show. For BorderLayout panes, you can easily swap new items into and out of them.
For efficiency's sake, I might recommend compiling this JLabel as a final somewhere else in your code, and holding onto it for when you need it. This way, you will also dodge overhead from repeatedly creating the label object.
Lastly, avoid AWT whenever you can. It's been deprecated for an excess of ten years, and if you do use it you will run into numerous critical problems involving heavyweight and lightweight component incompatibilities. If you intend to use another windowing kit, consider implementing the new standard, JavaFX, with a JFXPane-- it's much more tolerant of HTML syntax, as well.

Java Positioning a list on a GUI

I'm trying to add a JList to a GUI, but am wondering how to position it? I want it to appear on the right hand side of the TextArea for data that will be sent to the GUI for selection.
Can anyone suggest how to do this? Here is the code (note: very new to Java and GUI's)
protected static void createAndShowGUI() {
GUI predict = new GUI();
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Phone V1.0");
frame.setContentPane(predict.createContentPane());
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(300, 400));
frame.setVisible(true); // Otherwise invisible window
}
private JPanel createContentPane() {
JPanel pane = new JPanel();
TextArea = new JTextArea(5, 10);
TextArea.setEditable(false);
TextArea.setLineWrap(true);
TextArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
TextArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
pane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(pane, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
//Adds the buttons from Top to Bottom
String[] items = {"dsfsdfd"};
list = new JList(items);
JScrollPane scrollingList = new JScrollPane(list);
int orient = list.getLayoutOrientation();
JPanel window = new JPanel();
pane.add(window);
JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
buttonPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(5, 3));
JButton[] buttons = new JButton[] {
new JButton("Yes"),
new JButton(""),
new JButton("Clr"),
new JButton("1"),
new JButton("2abc"),
new JButton("3def"),
new JButton("4ghi"),
new JButton("5jkl"),
new JButton("6mno"),
new JButton("7pqrs"),
new JButton("8tuv"),
new JButton("9wxyz"),
new JButton("*+"),
new JButton("0_"),
new JButton("^#")
}; // Array Initialiser
for (int i = 0; i < buttons.length; i++) {
buttonPanel.add(buttons[i]);
buttons[i].addActionListener(this);
}
pane.add(TextArea);
pane.add(list);
pane.add(buttonPanel);
return pane;
}

Read the section from the Swing tutorial on Using Layout Mananger. There is no need to only use a single layout manager. You can nest layout managers to get the desired effect.

Wrap your TextArea and list in a new panel with a BorderLayout manager. Basically the BorderLayout manager lets you arrange components using north, south, east, west and center coordinates. The components at the center takes all available space as the parent container has more space available to it.
private JPanel createContentPane() {
JPanel pane = new JPanel(); //this is your main panel
JPanel textAreaPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout()); //the wrapper
//Some more code...
//Then at the end
//Make your TextArea take the center
textAreaPanel.add(TextArea, BorderLayout.CENTER);
//And the list to the east
textAreaPanel.add(list, BorderLayout.EAST);
pane.add(textAreaPanel);
pane.add(buttonPanel);
return pane;
}
The cool thing is that you can nest panels inside other panels, adding them different layout managers to get your desired layout.
On an unrelated note, try to follow Java naming conventions. Instead of JTextArea TextArea use JTextArea textArea. It makes it easier for you and people reading your code to understand it.

You could use a layout manager like Mig Layout for that kind of positionning.
(source: miglayout.com)

I could recommend you FormLayout. Before I found this layout I had a real pain with GridBagLayout. FormLayout is more powerful and much more convenient to learn and use and it is free. Give it a chance.

As others suggested, familiarize yourself with the concept of layout managers. There are several that come with the standard Swing API and several good 3rd party ones out there.
In addition, you will want to add the JList to a scroll pane (JScrollPane). You may want to consider adding it to a split pane (JSplitPane). And by consider I don't mean "do it because some guy on the net said so" I mean "do it if it makes sense for your end users".