FlowLayout / GridLayout combining?

Question

Alright I am trying to create a program that takes System.in from a scanner, places the input in a string, then creates a button layout based on the input. I am pretty new with Java and somewhat self taught so if this looks funky it is because I am no pro:

else if(wordReader.endsWith("\r")){

//Create grid layout (one below other)
GridLayout buttonReturn = new GridLayout(0,i);
contentPane.setLayout(buttonReturn);
System.out.println("This has a new line value");
i++;

    wordReader.replaceAll("\r","");
    buttonVal = new JButton (wordReader);
    buttonVal.addActionListener(new ButtonListener());
    buttonVal.setEnabled(true);

    contentPane.add(buttonVal, BorderLayout.NORTH);
Border emptyBorder = BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder();
buttonVal.setBorder(emptyBorder);
}

else {

    //Create button layout(side by side)
    FlowLayout buttonLayout = new FlowLayout();
    contentPane.setLayout(buttonLayout);
    contentPane.setComponentOrientation(ComponentOrientation.LEFT_TO_RIGHT);

    buttonVal = new JButton (wordReader);
    buttonVal.addActionListener(new ButtonListener());
    buttonVal.setEnabled(true);
    contentPane.add(buttonVal, BorderLayout.NORTH);
    Border emptyBorder = BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder();
    buttonVal.setBorder(emptyBorder);
}

My questions: What I want to do is create a button for every word, but display those buttons in a format similar to a paper format. That is, when a person hits the carriage return button, I no longer want the FlowLayout (side by side) but want to now move the next button with the carriage return below the previous buttons. Is this possible? I was trying to go from FlowLayout to GridLayout to move the next button below, but from reading I am not even sure that is possible. Is there a way to do this?

Is there a way to detect the carriage return button without executing in the console, right now I am having them input \r as a carriage return in their input instead of hitting enter?

I have looked through numerous instruction, articles, forums, and Q&A posts (including on this site) but can't seem to find anything that will let me do what I want to do. I will later be doing this to read from a file instead of System.in, so if that would be easier to explain then feel free to try on that :) Again I am pretty new at this, and have little formal training, so dumbing down the jargon would be appreciated. Thanks so much everyone.

Answer 1

You might look at JTextPane, which supports embedded components. Instead of a literal flow or grid layout, the StyledDocument maintains a conceptual document layout. Examples may be found in How to Use Editor Panes and Text Panes. Additional examples may be found here.