The following associates a JLabel with a JTextArea and sets a mnemonic that decorates the label. Pressing Alt-X on Windows moves the focus to the JTextArea.
JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(10, 20);
JLabel label = new JLabel("Text");
label.setLabelFor(textArea);
label.setDisplayedMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_X);
However, if the label uses HTML, the label is displayed as expected but it is not decorated with the mnemonic.
JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea();
JLabel label = new JLabel("<html>Text</html>"); //!!! NO DECORATION
label.setLabelFor(textArea);
label.setDisplayedMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_X);
Is this expected behavior? Any workarounds?
Edit 1: Modified the example to use a mnemonic that isn't part of the HTML tag based on Aziz' response.
Edit 2: Removed comments in question about the mnemonic key not working since further experimentation indicated that this was dependent on the Look and Feel used.