How do you layout these components centered

Here is my program, its like a 3 number hi-low game.

http://i49.tinypic.com/2qn1w5e.jpg

I am using for the top, middle, and bottom rows. Then inside those panels I use gridlayout to layout the objects. I want to know if instead of them being in their respective grids on the left hand side, if they could be centered inside of their grid?

I tried using setAlignmentX and that didn't work. I don't really know how to go about it. I'll post a snippet of my code that is important.

Code :

---

//middle panel setup
        JPanel middle = new JPanel();
        middle.setLayout(new GridLayout(1, 3));
 
        higher = new JButton("Higher");
        higher.setAlignmentX(CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
        middle.add(higher);
 
        or = new JLabel("OR");
        or.setAlignmentX(CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
        middle.add(or);
 
        lower = new JButton("Lower");
        lower.setAlignmentX(CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
        middle.add(lower);
        pane.add(middle);

---

EDIT: I drew what I want it to be like in paint... :D

http://i48.tinypic.com/143fj41.jpg

You could combine it with BoxLayout and utilize horizontal and vertical glues for the alignment. In your case, you could use this layout inside the GridLayout, perhaps create a new type of JPanel

Code :

---

public class HorizontallyCenteredJPanel extends JPanel{
    public HorizontallyCenteredJPanel(Component c){
        super();
        add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());
        add(c);
        add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());
    }
}

---

Or something like this....then just add your components to this, and in turn add it to your GridLayout JPanel.

Another way is to add each component to a JPanel with a GridBagLayout WITHOUT using a GridBagConstraints, which will center the component in the JPanel at its preferredSize, and then add these JPanels to your original GridLayout.

db

edit But a more suitable approach might be to just use a GridBagLayout with a GridBagConstraints set to fill=NONE and anchor=CENTER. Of course, if the individual components don't have the same preferred size, this could lead to an uneven grid spacing.