Adding spacing between elements in JMenuBar

Question

Elements such as File, Edit etc. are too close together when using the JMenuBar in my application, it would look much nicer if there were some space between the elements. Is this possible?

Banian

if you are using netbeans try right click on the component and click space around component – Tema

if you need space then try menubar.add(new JPanel()); it worked for me. – Febri

Answer 1

Yes, just add MenuBar item with empty text in it and make it not clickable/selectable

Westbrook

Thank you, this worked wonferfully PS. .setClickable() and .setSelectable() do not exist, instead use .setEnabled() for people who encounter the same problem – Banian

Answer 2

required to add JComponents that aren't focusable, you can create an space for

1. JMenuBar

   • JLabel (have to set for required PreferredSize)

   • JSeparator (minimus size is 10pixels, have to setOpaque for JSeparator)

2. JMenuItem

   • JSeparator (no additional settings required)

   • JLabel (have to set for required PreferredSize)

Christmas

Answer 3

For a horizontal use you could take a use |.

menu.add(new JMenu("File"));
menu.add(new JMenu("|"));
menu.add(new JMenu("Edit"));

For the vertical use you might simply use a JSeparator or addSeparator():

menu.add(new JMenuItem("Close"));
menu.add(new JSeparator());        // explicit
menu.addSeparator();               // or implicit
menu.add(new JMenuItem("Exit"));

Labourite

Answer 4

It's old, but I was looking for any solution to the same problem And I came out to this:

You should set margins to yours JMenuItem, like this:

JMenuItem menu = new JMenuItem("My Menu");
menu.setMargin(new Insets(10, 10, 10, 10));

Literality

Best solution so far. – Spruce

Answer 5

There is a static method on javax.swing.Box called createHorizontalStrut( int width ) to create an invisible fixed-width component.

The code would look something like this:

JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
menuBar.add( new JMenu( "File" ) );
menuBar.add( Box.createHorizontalStrut( 10 ) );  //this will add a 10 pixel space
menuBar.add( new JMenu( "Edit" ) );

Nook

Answer 6

There are two standard ways to add arbitrary spacing to Swing components.

One standard way is to use setMargin to the JMenu objects contained within the JMenuBar object. This is the way Gabriel Câmara suggested above für JMenuItem. This is supposed to work für JMenu objects as well, but I tried it and it did not work.

The second standard way to do this is to add an EmptyBorder to the JMenu objects. This works totally fine. It gives you total control for the exact distances you want to have in all directions.

JMenu jMenuFile = new JMenu("File")
jMenuFile.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(0, 10, 0, 10));

Feliks

Answer 7

The other answers work well, but can have unexpected spacing due to padding and margins. If you want to have more control of the size of your spacer:

JMenu spacer = new JMenu();

//disable the spacer so that it doesn't behave
//like a menu item
spacer.setEnabled(false);

//Java components are weird. Set all three to
//guarantee that size is used
spacer.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(width, 1));
spacer.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(width, 1));
spacer.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(width, 1));

//add the spacer to your JMenuBar
jMenuBar.add(spacer);

Applesauce