HELP!!! JTextArea keeps resizing to the size of the frame i have it on!!!1

Question

I have a Frame that has a panel with a JTextArea in it, but when the text area is displayed (regardless of what size i declare it ) it resizes itself to the size of the frame .. Anbody that can telkl me why it does this, thanks in advance ; )

Answer 1

okay, i'm back from lunch. maybe this will give you some ideas. i added borders so you could see the outline of the scroll pane as opposed to the top panel which i'm thinking should be called left panel since you have it to the west. it's not meant to represent the best design, only to demonstrate some thoughts.
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class MyFrame extends javax.swing.JFrame {
   private JPanel panel;
   private JScrollPane scroll;
   private JTextArea area;
   /** Creates a new instance of MyFrame */
   public MyFrame() {
      init();
   private void init(){
      setTitle("My Frame");
      panel = new JPanel();
      panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("my panel"));
      area = new JTextArea();
      area.setLineWrap(true);
      area.setWrapStyleWord(true);
      area.setRows(15);
      scroll = new JScrollPane(area);
      scroll.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("my scroll"));
      panel.add(scroll);
      getContentPane().add(panel,BorderLayout.WEST);
      setSize(400, 400);
      setLocationRelativeTo(null);
      addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter(){
         public void windowClosing(WindowEvent we) {
            System.exit(0);
      String tmp = "here is some text to test an area";
      for(int i=0;i<50;i++)
         area.append(tmp);
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      new MyFrame().setVisible(true);
}