Menus & Buttons

Question

Hi!
I'd like to change my Java Swing program buttons. Now they sit on the button bar surface and kind of "stick out". Basically each of them is graphically separate. I'd like to make them all melted into the surface without the "stick out" effect, just like it is in, for example Internet Explorer 6.0. They should stick out only then, when the mouse pointer is over them. Can you tell me how to change this apparance?
Thanks
PS. The same with the menu.

Answer 1

Because my poor english I don't understand the appearence of your buttons. But you can change the appearance of the buttons by creating a new UI class. I've already done another ButtonUI class for our application. I copy hier, just to see an example without comments because of the language for the javadoc is not english. It follows the appearance of the Metal L&F, the flat style.
public class CoreButtonUI
extends BasicButtonUI
public CoreButtonUI() { }
private final static CoreButtonUI buttonUI = new CoreButtonUI();
private boolean defaults_initialized = false;
protected int dashedRectGapX;
protected int dashedRectGapY;
protected int dashedRectGapWidth;
protected int dashedRectGapHeight;
protected Color focusColor;
public static ComponentUI createUI(JComponent jcomponent)
return buttonUI;
public void installDefaults(AbstractButton button)
super.installDefaults(button);
if (!defaults_initialized)
String pp = getPropertyPrefix();
focusColor = UIManager.getColor(pp + "focus");
dashedRectGapX = UIManager.getInt(pp + "dashedRectGapX");
dashedRectGapY = UIManager.getInt(pp + "dashedRectGapY");
dashedRectGapWidth = UIManager.getInt(pp + "dashedRectGapWidth");
dashedRectGapHeight = UIManager.getInt(pp + "dashedRectGapHeight");
defaults_initialized = true;
public void uninstallDefaults(AbstractButton button)
super.uninstallDefaults(button);
defaults_initialized = false;
protected void paintButtonPressed(Graphics g, AbstractButton abstractbutton)
setTextShiftOffset();
protected void paintFocus(Graphics g, AbstractButton b, Rectangle viewRect, Rectangle textRect, Rectangle iconRect)
JButton button = (JButton)b;
int width = b.getWidth();
int height = b.getHeight();
if (!button.isRolloverEnabled())
g.setColor(focusColor);
BasicGraphicsUtils.drawDashedRect(g, dashedRectGapX, dashedRectGapY,
width - dashedRectGapWidth, height - dashedRectGapHeight);