Well since you know how to create/use menus with AWT, the task is a simple matter of storing the previously used files in a list which will be read from a file when the application is launched, and updated when closed.


I would recommend the following:

public class UsedFiles extends Object implements Serializable
{ protected String filenames[]=null;

  public UsedFiles(int size){ super(); filenames=new String[size];}

  public UsedFiles(String fnames[])
  { super(); filenames=fnames;}

  protected int VerifyIndex(int index)
  { int n=index;
    if(index<0){ n=0;}
    else if(index>filenames.length-1){ n=filenames.length-1;}
    return n;
  }

  public int getFileCount(){ return filenames.length;}  

  public String getFileName(int index)
  { return filenames[VerifyIndex(index)];}

  public void setFileName(String fname,int index)
  { filenames[VerifyIndex(index)]=fname;}

  public static UsedFiles readList(InputStream instream) throws IOException
  { UsedFiles files=null;
    ObjectInputStream obstream=new ObjectInputStream(instream);
    files=(UsedFiles)(obstream.readObject());
    objstream.close();
    return files;
  }

  public static void writeList(OutputStream oustream,UsedFiles files) throws IOException
  { ObjectOutputStream obstream=new ObjectOutputStream(oustream);
    obstream.writeObject(files);
    obstream.flush();
    obstream.close();
  }
}

You would use the class like this:

UsedFiles files=UsedFiles.readList(new FileInputStream("files.dat"));
files.setFileName("essay.doc",2);
UsedFiles.writeList(new FileOutputStream("files.dat"),files);