Saving edited text to a file from a JTextArea

If you use a JEditorPane instead, loading and saving become much easier:

Document doc = ep.getDocument();
ep.getEditorKit().write(fileWriter, doc, 0, doc.getLength());

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Try

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
 
import java.io.*;
 
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.text.*;
 
 
public class fileio {
    String word;
    JTextArea wordDocModify;
    String openedDoc;
 
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        fileio docEdit = new fileio();
        docEdit.textEditorInitialScreen();
 
        //      docEdit.docEditor();
    }
 
    public void textEditorInitialScreen() throws Exception {
        JFrame jF1 = new JFrame("Text Editor"); // Set the window title.
 
        // Set the size of the JFrame to 1150 x 629 pixels. 
        jF1.setSize(1150, 629);
 
        JLayeredPane jP1 = new JLayeredPane();
        jP1.setLayout(null);
 
        JTextArea wordDocNew = new JTextArea(5, 10);
        wordDocNew.setLineWrap(true);
 
        JButton startOpen = new JButton("OPEN");
        startOpen.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                    //      textEditorEditingScreen();
                    try {
                        textEditorEditingScreen();
                    } catch (IOException e1) {
                        e1.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }
            });
 
        JButton startSave = new JButton("SAVE");
        startSave.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                    System.exit(0);
                }
            });
 
        JButton startClose = new JButton("QUIT");
        startClose.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                    System.exit(0);
                }
            });
 
        // Post the JLabels on the JPanel
        // jPanel1.add(pictureJLabel); // Post the BSG start screen. 
        jP1.add(wordDocNew, JLayeredPane.PALETTE_LAYER);
        jP1.add(startClose, JLayeredPane.PALETTE_LAYER);
        jP1.add(startOpen, JLayeredPane.PALETTE_LAYER);
        jP1.add(startSave, JLayeredPane.PALETTE_LAYER);
 
        wordDocNew.setBounds(10, 20, 900, 500);
        startOpen.setBounds(970, 50, 100, 20);
        startSave.setBounds(970, 100, 100, 20);
        startClose.setBounds(970, 200, 100, 20);
 
        // Post the JPanel into the JFrame
        jF1.getContentPane().add(jP1);
 
        // Displays the JFrame
        jF1.setVisible(true);
    }
 
    public void textEditorEditingScreen() throws IOException {
        //FileReader dataIn = new FileReader("text.txt");
        String filename = File.separator + "tmp";
        JFileChooser fc = new JFileChooser(new File(filename));
        // Show open dialog
        fc.showOpenDialog(null);
 
        File f = fc.getSelectedFile();
 
        // Show save dialog
        //   fc.showSaveDialog(null);
        //   selFile = fc.getSelectedFile();
        //   File f = new File("first.txt");
        FileReader fr = new FileReader(f);
        BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(fr);
 
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
        String eachLine = br.readLine();
 
        while (eachLine != null) {
            sb.append(eachLine);
            sb.append("\n");
            eachLine = br.readLine();
        }
 
        JFrame jF2 = new JFrame("Text Editor"); // Set the window title.
 
        // Set the size of the JFrame to 1150 x 629 pixels. 
        jF2.setSize(1150, 629);
 
        JLayeredPane jP2 = new JLayeredPane();
        jP2.setLayout(null);
 
        wordDocModify = new JTextArea(sb.toString(), 5, 10);
        wordDocModify.setLineWrap(true);
 
        JButton modifyOpen = new JButton("OPEN");
        modifyOpen.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                }
            });
 
        JButton modifySave = new JButton("SAVE");
        modifySave.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                    word = wordDocModify.getText();
 
                    try {
                        // Create file 
                        FileWriter first = new FileWriter(new File("first.txt"));
                        first.write("First file in java");
                        //Close the output stream
                        first.close();
                    } catch (Exception ex) { //Catch exception if any
                        System.err.println("Error: " + ex.getMessage());
                    }
 
                    //                      FileWriter first = new FileWriter(new File("test.txt"));
                    /*      FileWriter fstream = new FileWriter("out.txt");
                            BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(fstream);
                            out.write(word);
                    //Close the output stream
                    out.close(); */
                    System.out.println("written the following " + word +
                        " to a file");
                }
            });
 
        JButton modifyClose = new JButton("QUIT");
        modifyClose.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                    System.exit(0);
                }
            });
 
        // Post the JLabels on the JPanel
        // jPanel1.add(pictureJLabel); // Post the BSG start screen. 
        jP2.add(wordDocModify, JLayeredPane.PALETTE_LAYER);
        jP2.add(modifyClose, JLayeredPane.PALETTE_LAYER);
        jP2.add(modifyOpen, JLayeredPane.PALETTE_LAYER);
        jP2.add(modifySave, JLayeredPane.PALETTE_LAYER);
 
        wordDocModify.setBounds(10, 20, 900, 500);
        //      modifyOpen.setBounds(970,50,100,20);
        modifySave.setBounds(970, 100, 100, 20);
        modifyClose.setBounds(970, 200, 100, 20);
 
        // Post the JPanel into the JFrame
        jF2.getContentPane().add(jP2);
 
        // Displays the JFrame
        jF2.setVisible(true);
    }
 
    public String test() {
        String word = wordDocModify.getText();
        System.out.println("hey" + word + "test");
 
        return word;
    }
}

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What did you do?!!?!?

You had trouble around exception handling in the save action

(the variable name of the exception clashed with your event variable name)

fileio.java:158: cannot find symbol
symbol  : constructor FileWriter(java.io.File)
location: class FileWriter
         FileWriter first = new FileWriter(new File("first.txt"));


I don't that error when compiling your code
Your code looks fine in that respect


The problem CEHJ has changed is that the ActionEvent and the Exception var had the same name, though that would ne cause the error you were getting

                  public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
....
    }catch (Exception e){//Catch exception if any