Vertical JMenuBar width problem

Question

When I flip my JMenuBar vertical instead of horizontal by doing
BoxLayout bl = new BoxLayout(this,BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS);
setLayout(bl);
in a constructor for a class that extends JMenuBar. When I do that only 3 characters of each JMenu in the menubar are show. The button size is also ruffly half the width of the actual window. I am doing pack() on the JFrame that houses the JMenuBar. At the moment nothing else is in the JFrame. If I do not set the layout of my JMenuBar then I get a regular horizontal one and width is fine. It's only when I want the Menus vertical instead of horizontal. Been experimenting with all kinds of stuff and no go so far. Looking for suggestions?

Answer 1

this produces a menubar, with the screen items vertical, but it takes up too much real estate
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
class Testing extends JFrame
  public Testing()
    setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    setLocation(400,200);
    JMenu file = new JMenu("File");
    JMenuItem newItem = new JMenuItem("New");
    JMenuItem open = new JMenuItem("Open");
    JMenuItem preview = new JMenuItem("Preview");
    JMenuItem print = new JMenuItem("Print");
    JMenuItem exit = new JMenuItem("Exit");
    file.add(newItem);
    file.add(open);
    file.add(new JSeparator());
    file.add(preview);
    file.add(print);
    file.add(new JSeparator());
    file.add(exit);
    JMenu options = new JMenu("Options");
    JMenuItem font = new JMenuItem("Font");
    JMenuItem color = new JMenuItem("Color");
    options.add(font);
    options.add(color);
    JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
    menuBar.setLayout(new GridLayout(0,1));
    menuBar.add(file);
    menuBar.add(options);
    setJMenuBar(menuBar);
    getContentPane().add(new JTextArea(5,20));
    pack();
  public static void main(String[] args){new Testing().setVisible(true);}
}