What methods are available for implementing a text editor in Java?
The JTextPane class would be a good start.
JTextPane
How to use editor tabs and Using text components and Text panoramas from Java tutorials would be interesting to take a look at examples and explanations.
You can also take a look at JEdit , an open source java editor for ideas on exactly how to build an editor build.
You can use Eclipse . See http://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ How to create your own editor?
You can also use Netbeans . Here's the link .
I have successfully integrated EKit into a Java application, which is a fairly functional HTML text editor.