Interacting with a panel from outside ..?

Question

I was wondering.. is there a way to use a keyListener to read the keys a user presses, even if they don't have the panel that is running selected? If anyone can help it'd be much appreciated.
Oh, and while I'm here, I might as well ask: When I use JComponents, like JButton, or JTextfield, the don't show up on a JPanel, but the Button, and TextField do. It causes a problem for me when I wisht o use a JComboBox, especially.

Answer 1

No, no - I mean.. Like, a panel (Seems to be the only thing I can get to use listeners, and such with at the moment) that say.. If you were writing in a forum, and it was running, and you typed the consecutive characters 't', 'e', and 'h', it would use the robot to backspace 3 times, and write 't' 'h' 'e'. That sort of thing. Is it possible? And as for the JComponents, I'll grab a bit of my most recent attempt..
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.io.*;
* Game class; This takes care of all rules, and user interaction.
public class Game extends JPanel implements KeyListener, MouseListener, MouseMotionListener, ActionListener {
    private JComboBox cb; // ComboBox allows user to select a song before they play the game.
    public Game() {
        songs = new String[5]; // Making the array of music selections.
        // Defining song names.
        songs[0] = "None";
        songs[1] = "1";
        songs[2] = "2";
        songs[3] = "3";
        songs[4] = "4";
        // ComboBox initiation / addition to frame.
        cb = new JComboBox(songs);
        cb.addActionListener(this);   
        add (cb);
        Start(); // Initiating the variables that can be reset.
    } // End Game constructor.
     * The Start method; Initiating / resetting of variables.
    public void Start () {
        cb.setVisible (true); // The game begins with the ComboBox visible.
    } // End Start method
     * Paint method, draws the contents of the frame.
     * @param       g       Graphics        Java necessity to draw.
    public void paint (Graphics g) {
        cb.setVisible (true); // Show the ComboBox.
So that's basically what I did, I took out the other 2000 lines of code to just show the absolute basics of it. Now, when I click on its area, it shows the dropdown list, but the spot where it should show the currently selected item doesn't show up. There have been a few times I did see it, btu I cannot remember if i was on my home copmuter or not ..