There is a good group for those beginning Java, it is..
comp.lang.java.help

Are you sure?  New programmers are prone to writing code
that hides errors.  Where is your (short, self contained) code
so that we can confirm that?

Andrew T.

It was pretty easy when i did it the first time, but I'd had some Java
already, I was using NetBeans to generate the swing componets, and I'm
hardly new to programming in general.

Try adding some "System.err.println( "test..." ); around your code,
especially the parts you think are working.  There should be an event
that fires when you click on the button (probably an action event), some
text you grab from somewhere (print that out too) and then .add( "text"
) to the jTextArea.

That's about all there is to it.  If you can't figure out what going on,
download NetBeans, add your program as a project, and use the debugger
to step through your code.  Sometimes it's the only way.