[snip]

   See "A Visual Guide to Layout Managers":
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/layout/visual.html

   In particular, the last example
(http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/figures/uiswing/layout/SpringForm.gif)
looks like exactly what you want.

   - Oliver

perhaps aligning the label is all you need to do

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
class Testing extends JFrame
{
 public Testing()
 {
   setLocation(400,100);
   setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
   JPanel p = new JPanel(new GridLayout(3,2));
   p.add(new JLabel("Customer ID:",JLabel.RIGHT));
   p.add(new JLabel("XXXXXXX"));
   p.add(new JLabel("Reference:",JLabel.RIGHT));
   p.add(new JLabel("XXXXX"));
   p.add(new JLabel("Bla:",JLabel.RIGHT));
   p.add(new JLabel("XXXXXXXXXXX"));
   getContentPane().add(p);
   pack();
 }
 public static void main (String[] args){new Testing().setVisible(true);}
}

There may be simpler ways of doing it, but GridBagLayout will do it
since you can adjust the alignment of each component individually.

You use both the alignment ability of JLabel and the GridBagLayout.

Using insets you can control the padding around your JLabels.

I normally do the right hand side with JTextFields with
setEditable(false). That makes it clearer which is data and which is
label.

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/gridbaglayout.html
http://mindprod.com/jgloss/layout.html

Often grid-based layout managers do a well job.
There are free third party layout managers that
can implement more layouts than the GridBagLayout,
and some of them are easier to understand and to use.

I provide a presentation about layout issue, see
"Layout and Panel Building" at my articles page
http://www.jgoodies.com/articles/
I discuss problems, goals, concepts and present
a reference implementation for a grid-based layout
system, the JGoodies Forms. See also the
"JGoodies Forms" whitepaper for a discussion
of several Java layout managers.

Scott Violet has presented an overview of Java
layout system at this year's JavaOne. He categorizes
and compares a layout concepts, layout managers,
and layout systems. I don't have the URL at hand
for the JavaOne 2005 slides, but they are free.

Hope this helps. Kind regards,
Karsten Lentzsch