Looking for a way to highlight specific words in textareas?

Question

Hi i'm looking for a way to highlight specific words in text kind of like how a text editor might work with syntax highlighting. The highlighting will consist of the text being different colours and/or different styles such as italic, bold or regular.

In order to narrow focus, how this might be achieved using Java Swing components.

There are most probably a number of ways of doing this but one that is efficient in dealing with multiple highlighted words and large amounts of text.

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

Have a look at Java's JEditorPane class: it does what you want.

Answer 2

You can use the Highlighter that is available through JTextComponent's setHighlighter().

Answer 3

I would use a JTextPane. Its easier to use than a JEditorPane as you don't have to know or worry about HTML. The link you where given to the Swing tutorial covers both components.