Project - need help

Question

Hello everyone, I am completely new to Java and am currently taking a beginner class. My instructor encouraged us to get on the forums for help so that's what I'm doing. My overall goal of the started project below is to have the user select one of the options and have a message dispaly (either a label box or a message box - doesnt matter) that states the corresponding Grade they would receive in the class. He's a huge Chiefs fan, that's why I'm doing it like this - for brownie points. I really am 100% new to all of this, any help would be greatly appreciated. I really really want all the lbls to be on one line and all the visibility to be set to false until they check one of them and the visibility comes up true until they check a diff one, etc...
Here's what I've got so far:
import java.applet.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class ListenApplet extends Applet implements ItemListener
     //Declare components
     CheckboxGroup cGrades = new CheckboxGroup();
     Checkbox optRock = new Checkbox("Chiefs Rock!", cGrades, false);
     Checkbox optGood = new Checkbox("Chiefs are Good!", cGrades, false);
     Checkbox optMaybe = new Checkbox("Chiefs Might Win!", cGrades, false);
     Checkbox optChance = new Checkbox("Chiefs Don't Have a Chance!", cGrades, false);
     Checkbox optSuck = new Checkbox("Chiefs Suck!", cGrades, false);
     Checkbox chkBold = new Checkbox("Bold");
     Font fntBold = new Font("Times New Roman", Font.BOLD, 12);
     Font fntPlain = new Font("Times New Roman", Font.PLAIN, 12);
     Label lblFontStyle = new Label("THE CHIEFS QUIZ");
     Label lblGradeA = new Label("You get an A!");
     Label lblGradeB = new Label("You get a B!");
     Label lblGradeC = new Label("You get a C!");
     Label lblGradeD = new Label("You get a D!");
     Label lblGradeF = new Label("You get an F!");
     public void init()
          //Add controls
          setBackground(Color.orange);
          Panel pnlChoices = new Panel();
          pnlChoices.setLayout(new GridLayout(20,0));
          pnlChoices.add(lblFontStyle);
          pnlChoices.add(chkBold);
          pnlChoices.add(lblGradeA);
          pnlChoices.add(lblGradeB);
          pnlChoices.add(lblGradeC);
          pnlChoices.add(lblGradeD);
          pnlChoices.add(lblGradeF);
          pnlChoices.add(new Label("Choose Wisely "));
          pnlChoices.add(optRock);
          pnlChoices.add(optGood);
          pnlChoices.add(optMaybe);
          pnlChoices.add(optChance);
          pnlChoices.add(optSuck);
          add(pnlChoices);
          chkBold.addItemListener(this);
          optRock.addItemListener(this);
          optGood.addItemListener(this);
          optMaybe.addItemListener(this);
          optSuck.addItemListener(this);
     public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent item)
          //A check box or option button changed state. Check to see which
          //item changed and take action.
          //Get the object that caused the event
          Object eventSource = item.getSource();
          //Test for the Bold check box
          if (eventSource == chkBold)
               if (chkBold.getState())
               lblFontStyle.setFont(fntBold);
               else
               lblFontStyle.setFont(fntPlain);
}

Answer 1

There are a couple of options here:
1) You can call setVisible(false) to hide the labels. However, that may have an effect on the layout of the container.
2) Use a card layout and put in the label AND a blank component, and swap between them
3) Make a subclass of JLabel. Override paintComponent, such that, if it should be displayed, it calls super.paintComponent. Otherwise, it just returns.
(My preference is the third option).
- Adam