Toolbar buttons with label

As default, any action in a NetBeans toolbar is displayed with an icon only. If you want to show also a label for a desired action you have to implement a Presenter.TOOLBAR. If you don’t want do this for each action, register a custom org.openide.awt.Actions.ButtonActionConnector like this:

/**
 * @see org.openide.awt.Actions#connect(AbstractButton, Action)
 */
@ServiceProvider(service = ButtonActionConnector.class, position = 100)
public class MyButtonActionConnector implements ButtonActionConnector {

   @Override
   public boolean connect(AbstractButton button, Action action) {
      String text = (String)action.getValue("menuText"); // NOI18N
      if (text != null) {
         button.setAction(action);
         button.setText(Actions.cutAmpersand(text));
         String desc = (String)action.getValue(Action.SHORT_DESCRIPTION);
         if (desc != null) {
            button.setToolTipText(desc);
         } else {
            button.setToolTipText((String)action.getValue(Action.NAME));
         }
         return true;
      }
      return false;
   }

   @Override
   public boolean connect(JMenuItem item, Action action, boolean popup) {
      return false; // use default implementation
   }
}

If the property menuText is set, the the button is configured with icon and text. The basic use of the menuText Property is (copied from @ActionRegistration‘s javadoc):

Provides the JMenuItem text if one wants to use other than the name of the action returned by ActionRegistration.displayName().

With the custom ButtonActionConnector this property is “extended” to show a toolbar button text if supplied.

Provide a value for the @ActionRegistration’s menuText Attribute for the desired action(s):

@ActionRegistration(displayName = "#CTL_PwdChangeAction",
                    menuText = "#CTL_PwdChangeAction",
                    iconBase = "resources/key.png")
@ActionReference(path = "Toolbars/User")
@Messages("CTL_PwdChangeAction=Change Password…")
public final class PwdChangeAction implements ActionListener {
   ...
}

Result:

or

Tested with NetBeans 7.1.1 (see comments)