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| Chapter 7 Layouts |

## 7.9 Disabling the LayoutManager

To create a container with no layout manager, use `null` as the argument to `setLayout()`. If you do this, you must size and position every component individually. In most cases, disabling the `LayoutManager` is a bad idea because what might look great on one platform could look really bad on another, due to differences in fonts, native components, and other display characteristics. Figure 7.13 displays a container with a disabled `LayoutManager`; both buttons were positioned by specifying their size and location explicitly.

#### Figure 7.13: Applet with disabled layout manager

Here's the code that produces Figure 7.13:

    import java.awt.Button;
    import java.applet.Applet;
    public class noLayout extends Applet {
        public void init () {
            setLayout (null);
            Button x = new Button ("Hello");
            add (x);
            x.reshape (50, 60, 50, 70);
            Button y = new Button ("World");
            add (y);
            y.reshape (100, 120, 50, 70);
        }
    }

Combining Layouts |  | Designing Your Own LayoutManager