In my GUI's instructions panel, I have a message dialog appear (when a user clicks on a corresponding button with the instructions for decrypting a type of cipher. However, it forces the user to press "okay" (thus closing the dialog) before switching to the Game panel from the Instructions panel.
My problem is that I want the user to be able to access this message dialog while in the Game panel (basically just open it in the instructions panel and then be able to switch to the game panel with it still open). Is there a way to do this?
You need to make a custom non-modal
JDialog.JOptionPanes are by default modal meaning they block out other input in other components. Take a look at How to Make Dialogs