Forum Discussion

NikolausHerbert's avatar
NikolausHerbert
Community Member
2 years ago

Eyedropper does not pick the color it is moved over

Hi,

the eyedropper / Color Picker tool is unable to pick a color from an object. When the eyedropper is moved over the object (the red rectangle on the right in my screenshot), it pics up white (the white rectangle with the RGB, the eyedroper-Icon is not recorded in my screenshot software)
The same happens with pictures, in different projects, etc.

I am using v3.75.302690 on a current Win10 system. Both my monitors are set to the same resolution.

Please advise.

  • JoeDey's avatar
    JoeDey
    Community Member

    I'm having the same problem, been happening for quite some time now.

    • Hi Joe!

      Thanks for reaching out! Sorry to hear you are also experiencing erratic behavior with your eyedropper tool!

      As you can see from my reply to Nikolaus, after testing the eyedropper tool on my end (Storyline 360 ver 3.75.30269.0) I was unable to reproduce the same issue.

      I'd be happy to help you troubleshoot this snag, I just had some follow-up questions first:

      • Is this happening with all of the courses you create or just a specific one?
      • Which version of Storyline 360 are you currently running?
      • Have you tried performing a repair of your Storyline 360 application to see if that improves the functionality of the eyedropper tool?

      Looking forward to hearing from you!

      • JoeDey's avatar
        JoeDey
        Community Member

        Hi Steven, the problem is happening on the Beta and production versions, also with replay and screen record and it has been happening for as long as I can remember 

        I do not think its the software, since it doesn't make sense for the problem to occur across products. My issue is that the little square colour indicator box above the eyedropper does not register the correct colour until the pointer is way inside the borders of the target object, it is down and to the left before the correct colour is shown in the little square box. In other words the accuracy is out from the top and to the left by some considerable number if pixels. Screen recording using Peek or Replay places the mouse pointer nowhere near the object being pointed at, that is, it looks fine on the screen when doing the action, but the recording displaces the mouse pointer to above and to the left of the object, by literally inches.

        It can't be the software but must be another reason. It happens on every course, new or old, and in every version of the software. I have the latest beta and production versions installed. 

        I did the first repair but no change. I'm going to try on a different machine to see if can be reproduced. I use three external 32" monitors connected by HDMI, and the laptop screen. All four have the same resolution and display scaling settings.

  • Hi Nikolaus!

    Sorry to hear you are having some trouble getting your eyedropper tool to recognize the correct colors! I'd be happy to help!

    Testing it out on my end (Storyline 360 ver 3.75.30269.0), I inserted a Red square and a multi-color image of a bird. The eyedropper tool was accurate and responsive. Everything seems to be working as intended!

    You mention that this is happening across all of the Storyline 360 courses you create. Have you tried performing a repair of your Storyline 360 application to see if that improves behavior?

    Looking forward to hearing from you!

    • NikolausHerbert's avatar
      NikolausHerbert
      Community Member

      Hi Steven,

      thank you for the quick reply. Repairing the Storyline 360 application solved the problem :)

       

      • StevenBenassi's avatar
        StevenBenassi
        Staff

        Hi Nikolaus!

        So glad to hear a repair of your Storyline 360 application resolved the issue with your eyedropper tool! I'm sure other users discovering this thread will find this feedback very helpful!

        Have a great week and happy authoring!

         

  • Hi Joe, 

    Thanks so much for this update. It's so helpful to know what you are currently experiencing with the color indicator box.  

    I have a few questions in order to better assist you: 

    • Do you notice a difference if you only utilize one screen? Is there a difference when using two? 
    • Would it be possible for you to share a recording of your screen when this happens across the different apps? This will be helpful to see in action!

    In the meantime, I'd like to send along this article that could provide some assistance with this erratic behavior:

    This article will walk you through the step-by-step instructions for repairing on Windows 11 or Windows 10 in order to resolve the erratic behavior.  

    Please let us know your findings on the other computer as well!  I'm curious if it is isolated to one machine or if you're experiencing this with every device. 

    Looking forward to hearing from you, Joe! 

  • JoeDey's avatar
    JoeDey
    Community Member

    Hi Luciana, thank you for getting back to me. To answer your questions,

    How many screens? The issue persists regardless of whether I use only the laptop screen, or any combination of the four screens.

    Recording: it is problematic to record the screen regardless of whether I am inserting a screen recording from within Storyline, or using Peek or Replay, the results are the same. It does not record the mouse cursor nor the eye dropper, but it does record the position of the Hex square box (see video). So it is not easy to identify the position of the tip of the eye dropper. Now a quick point of note, this has been an issue for me for many months, so covering multiple versions of both the production and beta versions.

    Fix erratic behaviour: I have followed the instructions exactly and then took the images and video which show the problem was not resolved.

    Now, in relation to my work laptop (with the 4 monitors) if you look at the images (blue and red boxes) together with the video, you are able to see what I mean by just how far out the eye dropper is from the actual selection. It is inaccurate to the left and down by quite some margin.

    I logged into a Surface Pro 9 on a separate network and repeated the test (green and red boxes) and whilst there was a significant improvement in the accuracy of the positioning of the eye dropper it was still not totally accurate. See video for Surface Pro 9.

    I have therefore reproduced the same issue on two separate computers in two separate locations using the same version of the beta, the issue is the same in the production version.

    Finally, I have provided my screen configuration (4 images).

    I'm going to try to attach the zip file separately since it has failed to send three times now.

    • Hi Joe!

      Thank you for providing such thorough feedback and the troubleshooting steps you've implemented so far. I'm sorry this has been such an ongoing issue for you!

      Not to worry! I've opened a support case on your behalf so our support engineers can take a closer look at your setup and provide some more insight into the problem.

      You should be hearing from them shortly!

  • I have this same exact issue with the Eyedropper, is driving me a little bit nuts.

    Is there any known fix??

    • KellyAuner's avatar
      KellyAuner
      Staff

      Hi Ignacio,

      Thanks for reaching out!

      I'm sorry to hear you've hit this snag, but I'm happy to help troubleshoot. We've seen similar cases where this issue will happen on monitors with high scaling settings. Can you please try changing the scaling to 100% if it's not already to see if it will fix the problem?

      Additionally, you can try a Storyline repair if this happens with multiple courses. If neither suggestion works, please let us know here or privately in a support case so we can dig a bit deeper!

      • IgnacioBottan's avatar
        IgnacioBottan
        Community Member

        Hi Kelly, I could finally solve it by updating Storyline. I just downloaded it around 1 week ago, and an update appeared days later, which solved the problem. Luckily. thank you.

  • This issue still appears in Nov 2024 version of Storyline. Very reproducible if you have multiple monitors setup with different resolutions. I've also noticed that Storyline doesn't quite know where to put pop-up property panels and dialog boxes when there is an additional monitor connected. In some cases, the panel will not even appear.

    For example, I've got a 2nd monitor connected to my laptop and run Storyline from it. The eyedropper issue in this thread still happens. Also, in today's version, you can't display Slide Layer Properties panel until you move Storyline to the primary display and disconnect the 2nd display. Otherwise, it seems that Storyline isn't opening the panel. It does, but it's floating somewhere outside of the display spaces. Seems to be the same problem with eyedropper; when multiple monitors are connected, the eyedropper doesn't seem to know where it is located in the display space. Articulate needs to include multiple-displays in their top-down testing because these issues have existed for years. 

    • LaurenDuvall's avatar
      LaurenDuvall
      Staff

      Hi StephenDyson-f4! This issue will occur unless monitors have identical DPI for the color picker to work. I'll share your feedback with our team so they are aware of the impact this is having.