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Remove/disable/override Swing's focus traversal keys

Note: see the edit (save some time reading)
I'm trying to make my mind-mapping program respond to shortcuts like CTRL+RIGHT (reordering nodes) and TAB (insert child at next indent level). I have a JPanel that handles all of the keystrokes. It resides inside of a JTabbedPane that might be the cause for Key Bindings not working. I've chickened out and decided to just use KeyListener.
The problem is that with the aforementioned key combinations, Swing automatically shifts the focus to some other component. I'd rather not manually put setFocusable(false) everywhere. How can I disable these shortcuts altogether in such a way that the focus will not be shifted, and the relevant KeyEvents will still be sent to my JPanel?
Edit:
I used the following code:
for (int id : new int[] {KeyboardFocusManager.FORWARD_TRAVERSAL_KEYS, KeyboardFocusManager.BACKWARD_TRAVERSAL_KEYS, KeyboardFocusManager.UP_CYCLE_TRAVERSAL_KEYS, KeyboardFocusManager.DOWN_CYCLE_TRAVERSAL_KEYS})
setFocusTraversalKeys(id, Collections.EMPTY_SET);
to disable the default traversal keys (particularly TAB.)
Now the issue is actually why CTRL+UP causes a loss of focus. When pressing CTRL+DOWN, for instance, it's fine. The component behaves as expected. But with CTRL+UP, it works as expected and then focus is shifted/lost somehow. Can anyone say what CTRL+UP means and how to disable it wherever it is? Google isn't helping.

KeyBinding are used for all KeyEvents implemented in Swing APIs, maybe there is/are conflict
is required to override required KeyBindings, change used Keys, set to null, e.i. depends of your requirements
list of KeyBindings by #camickr

How do I add a KeyListener to an entire project?

I am developing an app that requires multiple JFrames. The JFrame writes to a file, then is disposed. I want to have a KeyListener listen for the same key press, throughout the entire project without having to create the KeyListener in each class. Is there a way?

I agree that key bindings should be used, but since I can't delete my accepted answer I have to leave this here.

Capturing "Tab" key press by both the focused component and its container

Is there a way to propagate a key press from say a JTextField to its container's KeyListener implementation?
So in effect, the keypress would be acted upon by both the text field and the JPanel. Right now the text field is consuming the key press so is nonexistent to the JPanel underneath.

In Swing, the tab key is used to change the focus from one component to another. The article Validating Input discusses InputVerifier, which may help you do what you want.

The question is why do you want to do this? What is your actual requirement as oppose to your attempted solution. Having an event handled by two components is generally not a good idea.
In general you should not use KeyListeners. Swing was designed to use Key Bindings. However, in this case it won't help because as mentioned earlier the focus subsystem handles the tab key.
If this is the only solution to your problem, then I think you can use KeyEventPostProcessor to listen for any KeyEvent. See Global Event Listeners for more info.

Passing accelerator keystrokes to the main menu in Java

I have added some accelerators to the main menu, using MenuItem.setAccelerator(). Just basic stuff like ctrl-c for copy, etc.
This works ok. But the app is a bit like an IDE, it has several panels containing JTables. If a table cell has focus, it absorbs the accelerator key, which means the main menu never sees it.
Clearly, if an editable table cell is active I would like the cut and paste keys to function normally, but in every other case I would like the main menu to respond.
Any ideas?

KeyStrokes go to the component that has focus first. Since JTable binds Ctrl+C to an Action, that action is invoked.
If you don't like the default Action of the table, then you would need to remove the binding from the table.
Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use Key Bindings. It shows you how to remove a binding.

Thanks, that got me on the right track.
Removing the bindings didn't quite work, it just stopped the table doing its default action so the keypress was ignored altogether.
However, adding this to the table itself worked ok:
component.getInputMap().put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_C, ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK), "copy");
component.getActionMap().put("copy", actions.copyAction);
(Repeated for each desired key of course). Needs to be kept in synch with any changes to the main menu itself, but I can't see a way to avoid that with any method.

JPanel not listening to key event when there is a child component with JButton on it

I'm working on a map editor for my college project. And I had a problem that the map panel is not listening key event while it should.
This happens when I add a ToolBarPane (which extends JPanel) with JComponent such as JButton, JComboBox that implements ActionListener on it AND the map panel (which extends the JPanel) together on to the Frame (I used BorderLayout). I have System.out.println statement to test if the key press is received, and it's not printing, if I remove the ToolBar, the key listener works again, so is the mouseListenner is disabled just like the keyListener, which means I can't handle press events etc, but the mouseListener works fine and I can still handle mouse move event.
Here is a screen shot how it works without the ToolBarPane
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/3232/sampleku.png
note that you can use the mouse to put images on the map, you can also select images using the mouse just like a laser tool, and by pressing number key you can switch between different images, this works fine until I add the ToolBarPane which shows like this:
img291.imageshack.us/img291/8020/failve.png
(please add http before that, I can only post one hyperlink)
(I can't post images here because I'm a new user)
With the ToolBarPane on I was no longer able to handle the key event.
I guess it might by that the focus as been transferred to that panel somehow, but not sure at all.
Does and body know this and can help me out?
Thanks very much

I suggest you use the InputMap and WHEN_ANCESTOR_OF_FOCUSED_COMPONENT or something similar. Excerpt from How to Use Key Bindings:
JComponent.WHEN_ANCESTOR_OF_FOCUSED_COMPONENT
The component contains (or is) the component that has the focus. This input map is commonly used for a composite component
That has worked very robustly for me. Have a look at my other post for more information and actual code examples:
Keyboard input for a game in Java
or this tutorial:
Swing: Understanding Input/Action Maps

You should NOT be using a KeyListener.
Swing was designed to use Key Bindings which is far more flexible. Check out my quick summary of Key Bindings which also includes a link to the Swing tutorial which conains far more detail.
(I can't post images here because I'm a new user)
An image doesn't help much anyway. If you need more help post your SSCCE which shows the problem (after trying the above suggestion).