NetBeans

I am starting java soon at university, so i thought i'd look into it. I am using NetBeans as my IDE but there is one thing i really don't understand.

Forms, there are JPanels and JFrames... what are these? They look nothing like a form. Am i even using the right type of form? Is there just a generic form? What is with the alignment of controls on the JPanel and JFrame?

Moved from Java CodeBank.

JFrame is a top-level container window. JPanel is a random generic control container.

The alignment depends on the layout manager you use. There are various; the GridBagLayout is probably the most common.

Are you using drag and drop tools? If so, it might not be such a good idea to start learning that way. It's better to do things programatically yourself starting out so you can understand things such as this, but for a prototype I guess it's ok.