I'm pretty certain I remember you could do that with a JTable (don't see
anything else in the Sun API that'd match your needs).
Hiding would be done with a custom TableCellRenderer, along with the
TableModel specifying they aren't editable.
Focus traversal would probably be done with a proper
FocusTraversalPolicy -- although that might be tricky. Perhaps it would
work simply properly to flag the Component returned in the
TableCellRenderer.
--
DF.
An escaped convict once said to me:
"Alcatraz is the place to be"