package com.nigorojr.typebest;

import javax.swing.JLabel;

public class Word extends JLabel {
	private JLabel wordLabel = new JLabel();
	private String rawWord;
	
	/**
	 * Accepts a String which is what will be shown in this JLabel.
	 * The constructor will then split the word into letters and put them into
	 * individual JLabels.
	 * @param word
	 */
	public Word(String word) {
		rawWord = word;
		
		split();
	}
	
	private void split() {
		for (int i = 0; i < rawWord.length(); i++) {
			JLabel letter = new JLabel(Character.toString(rawWord.charAt(i)));
			wordLabel.add(letter);
		}
	}
}
package com.nigorojr.typebest;

import java.util.ArrayList;

import javax.swing.JLabel;

public class Word {
    private ArrayList<Letter> word = new ArrayList<Letter>();
    private String rawWord;

    /**
     * Accepts a String which is what will be shown in this JLabel.
     * The constructor will then split the word into letters and create a Letter
     * object for each letter.
     * 
     * @param word
     *            The word that will be shown as a collection of "Letter" class.
     */
    public Word(String word) {
        rawWord = word;

        split();
    }

    /**
     * Splits up the word into letters and add them to an ArrayList.
     */
    private void split() {
        for (int i = 0; i < rawWord.length(); i++) {
            Letter letter = new Letter(rawWord.charAt(i));
            word.add(letter);
        }
    }
}
Use ArrayList of Letter in the Word class