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Which is the Java swing component to realize a window with a smaller X button?

Help me please to find which swing component should I use to display a window, similar to "Styles and Formatting" in Libre Office. It has a smaller "close" button and no icon at the left top. And, what is the most important for me, always remains in front of the main frame.
Such a window I would like to use in my Java application.
Thank you very much!

Seems you've not tried much... Just googling a bit you can find easily the 4 steps you need to achieve your goal:
create a JFrame,
put an X button in your JFrame,
set a listener to X button
put JFrame on top

How do I refresh a GUI in Java?

I have a general question that is Java related.
I am writing an application that has a GUI menu. I am trying to change one part of the GUI menu based on the selection of a Radio button.
Do I need to:
Redraw the whole window or just update that part with:
setVisible(true)?
If I just use the statement from #1 above .. the GUI is fine -- until I move the mouse over it and then I see the previous button choice. What am I doing wrong?

Swing components have a repaint(), revalidate(), and doLayout() method. One of those should probably be able to redraw whichever pieces you want. However, doLayout is not something that you should be taking responsibility for, that's the layout engines responsibility.
You may also want to check out this post, the first response has a pretty good explanation, and links to an article with more detail.
In terms of the second part of your question, I'm not sure, but we may need to see some code to get an idea. Is the 'replaced area' actually being removed from the view?

..in my application the user select which device platform type they want top test (that choice is a set of two radio buttons on the left). When the user selects either Android or iOS, the center grouping of check boxes changes to reflect a group of android devices they can test or a group of iOS devices that they can test.
Put a panel in the 'center grouping'.
Use a CardLayout for the panel.
Add both iOS & Android controls to the panel with the card layout.
Flip between them as needed.

Call revalidate() on the top level component.

Small Window Over Components

I already look at java library and dont know what to use to do this..
I already tryed JInternalFrame but thats not what I really want.. because it needs to be added to a JDesktopPanel right??
And in my program I have a JFrame with content pane using BorderLayout..
Then on borderlayout center I have a JTextArea, on borderlayout east I have a list.. and on borderlayout south I have a JPanel..
What I want is, when I do a certain action, it will pop up a "mini window" where I need to choose something.. u see?
and if I create JDesktopLane it will overlap what I have on the container..
the window will be made by my like a color chooser pallete , like a grid with colors.. and a label on top saying some text..
I just dont know how to make a "window" over the other components, and users can still drag over the frame, and interact with all the other components.. the jtextarea and such..
I guess you understood, thanks alot in advance!!
If u dont understand something please tell me, I really want to do this :)
Just dont know what to use..
Thanks again ;)

Have you tried JDialog?

It's because Jdialog are not component to be add in a JFrame, it's an independant thing running on it's own
if you use JDialog, the construct parameter parent indicate wich frame the JDialog is related to.

The typical class for this task is JWindow, a borderless top-level window that can be freely positioned. You could use SwingUtilities.getPointFromComponent to get the screen coordinates for a realized coordinate.
Top-level windows (JFrame, JDialog, JWindow) are not added to containers. They can get other windows as parent.
I dont want to use another JFrame.. that is kinda bad for code, its a small window with a simple function..
Structure your code so you can read it, others can read it, and you can debug it easily (the latter is a result from the first). A low class count is useless and -most of the time- contraproductive.
Why should another JFrame (or other window) be bad?
If you absolutely want to avoid opening top level windows (e.g. to avoid applet warning icons or to implement a special kind of user interface) you could use a JLayeredPane to add additional JPanels above your existing GUI elements.

Rectangular Java Swing Radio buttons?

I'd like to create a set of buttons in a Java Swing application like you get in a typical tool palette in a paint program. That is, a set of small square buttons, each containing an icon, only one of which is pressed down, and when you press another button, the first is deselected. I've thought of a number of solutions and none of them seem very easy/elegant.
This sounds like a job for JRadioButton, but if you add an Icon to that, you still get the small circle, which is fairly space inefficient. I guess an option would be finding an alternative Look and Feel or painting code for JRadioButton.
Another alternative might be to add JButton to a ButtonGroup, maybe setting a JToggleButton.ToggleButtonModel as the model, but that doesn't have the desired effect, as the painting code for a standard JButton does not keep it depressed when selected. Possibly the JButton code could be modified to do this. Like making it painting "selected" the same way as "pressed".
A third alternative would be to use normal JButton's, and add a common mouse listener that keeps them pressed or not, and communicates the changes between the buttons.
Can anyone advise on the best way to achieve the aim please? A simple method I've missed would be best, but advice on which of these three alternatives would be best and pointers on how to get started would be useful too.

What about a plain JToggleButton in a ButtonGroup? It is not abstract, you can instantiate one with an Icon, and it stays depressed while selected.

See the SwingSet2 demo:
http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.4/demos/jfc/SwingSet2/SwingSet2.html
Click the second icon on the toolbar (the one twith the check box and radio button) then tab "Radio buttons". Then click on "Paint Border" on the right panel, under "Display Options".
Source code of the demo is under your JDK install dir, so for example on my PC it's under \jdk1.6.0_01\demo\jfc\SwingSet2\src

Java: big popup menu with additional panels

I want to create a popup menu which has a few "big" (special) items.
These "big" items should somehow behave like submenus, but they are large panels (with buttons, labels, combo boxes, etc.). These panels should all appear when the mouse is over (or pressed at) the corresponding menu items, and they all should appear in the same screen area just next to the popup menu, beneath the topmost item entry, not aligned to their corresponding item). The last-selected of them can remain visible as long as the popup is visible.
Basically, I believe this feels like (A) putting a JLayeredPane next to the popup menu, and switching the layers according to some mouse events. Probably this would require to fake the whole popup menu using a single large JPanel inside a JPopupMenu having just this one entry (i.e. also all "ordinary" menu items would in fact have to be buttons.)
So, on the other hand (B), it seems probably smarter to use standard swing submenu items, add the big panels as submenu items, and then force all the submenu items to the same location and size. Though, I am not sure if this will work and whether there will be such problems like the menu getting instantly hidden as soon as the user clicks a combo box inside one of the big panels.
Would you recommend going for either (A) or (B) — or perhaps (C) ?
Any experiences / known pitfalls doing such things?
Kind regards,
Philipp

I don't have experience with A or B, but between the two I would try B first.
Another option that might be better is to use a JDialog. Set to to be undecorated and hide it when it loses focus. (This might just be an easier way to do A).