what do you mean by "a project"? what, for that matter, is JPad?
the canonical answer is that it's better to start out learning Java using nothing but a simple text editor and the command-line compiler; IDEs suchlike can wait for later. in the beginning, they're likely to do too much of the work for you.
that said, a text editor advanced enough that it can do automatic indenting and possibly syntax highlighting makes the work of learning easier. i like
TextPad on windows, and
vim on Unix/Linux, but tastes do differ.