MFC routes command messages to the frame window, view, document, doc template, and the CWinApp instead of a control bar. Controls are not included in MFC's default message routing. If you are working strictly with MFC and CControlBar, the client of a CControlBar is not visited in the default routing of messages either.

When you apply focus to a control bar, command messages are still routed to the active MDI child (or SDI frame). This is not unique to Objective Toolkit; using CControlBar yields the same result.