Make the scrollbars always appear
import javax.swing.JScrollPane; import javax.swing.JTextArea; public class Main { public static void main(String[] argv) throws Exception { JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(); JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane(textArea); pane.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS); pane.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS); } }