Creating a Log file import java.io.*; import java.text.*; import java.util.*; public class MsgLog { protected static String defaultLogFile = "c:\\msglog.txt"; public static void write(String s) throws IOException { write(defaultLogFile, s); } public static void write(String f, String s) throws IOException { TimeZone tz = TimeZone.getTimeZone("EST"); // or PST, MID, etc ... Date now = new Date(); DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat ("yyyy.mm.dd hh:mm:ss "); df.setTimeZone(tz); String currentTime = df.format(now); FileWriter aWriter = new FileWriter(f, true); aWriter.write(currentTime + " " + s + "\n"); aWriter.flush(); aWriter.close(); } }