sorry and thank you Yair for the prompt reply. I was using JMenu.getItem instead of jMenu.getMenuComponent as you advised. It works as you advise.

@Thierry – you have looked at the incorrect javadoc: JMenu is the top-level menu (File/Edit/View/… – the jFileMenu item in my article above) and for that you cannot set an accelerator – it is automatically set by the operating system, e.g. <Alt>-F to activate the File main menu.

However, accelerators work just fine for menu items that are not top-level (JMenuItem, or rather com.mathworks.mwswing.MJCheckBoxMenuItem which extends it). If you try the code you’ll see that it works just fine. The relevant javadoc for these menu items is: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/swing/JMenuItem.html#setAccelerator(javax.swing.KeyStroke)

public void setAccelerator(KeyStroke keyStroke)
setAccelerator is not defined for JMenu. Use setMnemonic instead.
Overrides:
setAccelerator in class JMenuItem
Parameters:
keyStroke - the keystroke combination which will invoke the JMenuItem's actionlisteners without navigating the menu hierarchy
Throws:
Error - if invoked -- this method is not defined for JMenu. Use setMnemonic instead

@Stephan – as far as I can tell, Matlab’s context-menus are not implemented in Java and so they cannot be modified in the same manner. Instead of using Matlab’s context menus, you can easily implement your own Java-based context-menu (which is much more customizable), as I have shown here: http://undocumentedmatlab.com/blog/setting-listbox-mouse-actions/

In your post you play with the main menu of the figure window. I would like to do similar stuff with a uicontextmenu (e.g. adding icons). However, I have so far been unsuccessful in finding the according Java reference for the context menu. Could you help me with that, please?

I don’t understand your question…

In your post you play with the figure window

Late answer but maybe useful for others with the same problem. Issue the following to close any open menus:

javax.swing.MenuSelectionManager.defaultManager().clearSelectedPath();

I’m having trouble with the doClick-method…
I have no problem finding the menu and getting it to open with menu.doClick().
But it won’t close on the next menu.doClick() call.

I already inserted drawnow’s and pause(1) statements between the doClick-calls, but that doesn’t help either – the menu simply remains open, even when I have a loop running à la:

while true
    menu.doClick()
    pause(1);
end

Are there other ways to force the menu to hide again?

@Attilio – Now you forgot to call doClick() as explained in the article. If you need any further customizations or help with your program please contact me via email (altmany at gmail).

In the future, please reply on the original comment thread, rather than creating a new thread.