Skip disabled JMenu when traversing JMenuBar with arrow keys

Question

I have a Java application with a JFrame that contains a JMenuBar. I am using the Windows L&F.

When the JMenuBar is active, the selected JMenu is highlighted. The user can move to the previous/next JMenu by pressing the left/right arrows keys.

The problem I am having is with disabled JMenus. In the Windows L&F, disabled JMenus are not skipped when traversed with the arrow keys and they are also not highlighted. When the user moves onto a disabled JMenu, there is no visual clue as to where he is.

Is there any way to modify the JMenuBar behavior so that it skips disabled JMenus?

Answer 1

Trying to figure out how navigation is done, I was looking at BasicPopupMenuUI where I found two methods called next/previousEnabledChild(...) that are checking the following UIManager property:

UIManager.getBoolean("MenuItem.disabledAreNavigable")

So after setting the LAF to windows I add the following line of code:

UIManager.put("MenuItem.disabledAreNavigable", Boolean.FALSE);

and it now works as you expect.