When I try to put the JTextArea in a JScrollPane, it a) doesn't display the menu most of the time, and b) doesn't display the scroll bars, even though I've got more text than the size of the JTextArea.
Code (it's a VERY simple error console for something else):

import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.ScrollPane;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JMenu;
import javax.swing.JMenuBar;
import javax.swing.JMenuItem;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.JTextField;

public class ErrorConsole extends JFrame {
	JPanel pan = new JPanel();
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
	JTextArea ar = new JTextArea("");
	JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
	JMenu menu = new JMenu("Tools");
	JMenuItem clear = new JMenuItem("Clear");
	JMenuItem close = new JMenuItem("Quit");
	JMenuItem post = new JMenuItem("Manual Post");
	JFrame postFrame = new JFrame("Post");
	JTextField fil = new JTextField("Post Here");
	JButton cont = new JButton("Post!");
	JPanel postPanel = new JPanel();

	void postWindow() {
		postFrame.setVisible(true);
	}

	public ErrorConsole(String title) {
		this.setTitle(title);
		//JScrollPane js = new JScrollPane(ar);
		 JScrollPane scrollPane = 
			      new JScrollPane(ar);
		//pan.add(scrollPane);
		 pan.add(ar);
		ar.setEditable(false);
		this.setResizable(false);
		ar.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 252));
		this.setSize(325, 324);
		add(pan);
		ar.setText("*"+title + "*\n");
		this.setVisible(true);
		menuBar.add(menu);
		menu.add(post);
		menu.add(clear);
		menu.add(close);
		fil.setColumns(20);
		postFrame.pack();
		post.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

			public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
				postWindow();
			}
		});
		this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
		this.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
		postFrame.add(postPanel);
		postPanel.add(fil);
		postPanel.add(cont);
		cont.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

			public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
				post(fil.getText() + "\n");
			}
		});
	}

	/**
	 * Posts to the JList
	 * 
	 * @param text
	 * @param type
	 */
	public void post(String text) {
		ar.append(text);
	}

	public void clear() {
		ar.setText("");
	}

	public void close() {
		clear();
		setVisible(false);
		System.gc();
	}

}

Thanks!
Jack

Try changing around the changes you are making to each of the components where you are calling different methods on each to set this and that.
When you find the right combination it will work. Anyways that's what I did to get it to work, so I'll let you go the path I went to find the problem.

Alright. I don't have the time at the moment, but I should be able to in the morning.

Ok, have fun.

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