Trying to pick a shape's border color to match other on-screen elements. The eyedropper only works in the dialog box. Once outside, the chosen color is black no matter what the eyedropper is over. SL version 12.14647.0

I'm gonna drop the magic pill. When using the Eye Dropper outside the palette, hold Middle Mouse Button, then left click. Boom.

Hi Everyone, Apologies, as it looks like we missed this discussion when the update came out. I just wanted to let you all know that the issue where the Eyedropper tool wouldn't always select your chosen color when using multiple monitors with different DPI settings was fixed in Update 30 of Storyline 360. Please ensure you’re on the latest update to get this function working correctly! If you find yourself still running into this issue, please reach out to our support engineers to help troubleshoot your setup and find a solution!

Looks like the way Parallels is set up, I am using an iMac 27" with additional 27"external display, in fact storyline only ever runs off the external display. I may however be a combination of the screen settings in MAcOS and Parallels. Something doesnt feel right though, because you cannot left click and select the colour. I have just dragged out my magic mouse (I swapped to a Logitech with programmable buttons to open all the storyline dialogues via the mouse) and left click works for me, fine. I think you may need to type/screenshare with someone to check the settings in MacOS, parallels and Windows to see what is going on. I dont think it is a storyline issue.

I run Storyline 3 on an external monitor connected to my laptop. I discovered that if you change the Windows display scale setting to 100% (it defaults to 125%), the color picker will work just fine. Hope this helps!

OUR SOLUTION:We have been having this issue for months with Storyline 360, and what finally worked for us was a combination of the above suggestions: When testing the laptop in isolation, before you shut down the laptop, shut down Storyline, or disconnect the external monitors, make sure the storyline app window has been moved over to the laptop screen. You can move it back to the external monitors after restarting it. (When testing the laptop only for functionality, our developer still had the same eyedropper issue because she left the app window open on her external monitors when shutting down the computer or disconnecting the monitors. If she moved the app window over to the laptop before disconnecting from the external monitors, the eyedropper worked fine on the laptop.) Make sure that you actually disconnect the monitors, not just turn them off, when testing Storyline on your laptop. (The Storyline eyedropper wouldn't register, even on the laptop screen, if we simply turned off the external monitors.) Set all your display settings, including the laptop, to 100% (And it may work to simply make them all consistent. We didn't test 125% across the board, but that may work, too.) After resetting all your display settings to 100%, you have to restart Storyline for them to take effect within the app. (The rest of the display changed immediately, so we didn't initially think it worked until we tried restarting Storyline after changing the settings.) Hope this helps someone. The struggle is real... P.S. Neither changing how we accessed the eyedropper nor the mouse button workarounds mentioned above worked for us. As also mentioned above, the eyedropper seemed to be selecting colors from several inches (a "hands width") away from the curser.

Color picker (eyedropper) doesn't work

105 Replies

WendyFarmer
Super Hero
8 years ago
Works for me
SamClark
Community Member
8 years ago
Good to know. Same version? Shape border?
WendyFarmer
Super Hero
8 years ago

Works if I do via Format > Shape Outline in the toolbar or Right Click > Format Shape > Line Colour is that what Shape Border? means?
SamClark
Community Member
8 years ago
Well this is awkward. Same version. Doesn't work here.

Screenshot. See the black? The cursor is outside the dialog box.
WendyFarmer
Super Hero
8 years ago
Sorry Sam I can't tell from the screen shots what you are trying to pick colour from

Here is a Peek video - 3 shapes with outlines changed

Format tab

Right click > format shape

Right click > format shape > line colour > more colours > eye dropper
MartinDean
Community Member
8 years ago
I am having the same problem. I wanted to add some new custom colours to the MORE FILL COLOURS palette and the eye dropper only works within the standard palette. If the eye dropped is moved outside the palette, it does not register any colours.

https://vimeo.com/277247763

The above vimeo will show you what I mean.
ChengzheZhou
Community Member
8 years ago
I'm gonna drop the magic pill. When using the Eye Dropper outside the palette, hold Middle Mouse Button, then left click. Boom.
- MartinDean
  Community Member
  8 years ago
  Great suggestion - tried this on my Mac running Parallels and RIGHT CLICK does indeed allow the eye dropper to sample outside the dialog box. However, it does not want to 'stick' to the sample once the cursor is back in the box. I also cannot find a way to store the sampled colours as 'custom colours'.
  
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  - ChengzheZhou
    Community Member
    8 years ago
    You are almost there, you need to be holding your RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON (or Middle Button), and then LEFT CLICK.
- SarahBrother131
  Community Member
  7 years ago
  Thank you so much!
AlyssaGomez
Staff
8 years ago
Hey there Martin!

Let's see if we can nail down why this is happening! No need to buy a new mouse just yet.

I'm also on a Mac with Windows 10 installed on a virtual machine. Here's a Peek recording of how the eyedropper tool works on my end.

Could you tell me...

What version of Storyline 360 you're using?

What version of Windows is installed in Parallels?

Thanks!
- MartinDean
  Community Member
  8 years ago
  Alyssa
  
  Many thanks for your reply.
  
  I am using Storyline 3.17.16188.0 on Windows 10 using Parallels v13 (which was updated this morning).
  
  As you will see in the Vimeo link I placed earlier in this post, my Mac is not responding the same way as yours. Since the update this morning, I note that the eye dropper is actually sampling the screen outside the dialogue box but not the pixels under the cursor!
  
  (See new recording here: https://vimeo.com/277635008 )
  
  I have also discovered more about the problem...
  
  When the Mac is not connected to any external monitors, the colour picker works as it should. When connected externally, the eye-dropper seems to be displaced by a large amount (see in video) and does not behave as it should.
  
  I would be very gratefiul for any feedback
PhilMayor
Super Hero
8 years ago
Left click should work for the dropper on a Mac

The eyedropper will not work properly in coherence mode
PhilMayor
Super Hero
8 years ago
In fact lots of things do not work properly in coherence mode
- MartinDean
  Community Member
  8 years ago
  I agree. I avoid coherence mode at all times - strange things happen!