Powerpoint Office2016 Eyedropper not working

Anonymous
2015-12-01T17:51:55+00:00

Hi

just upgraded last week to Office2016/64 on Win10 and discovered that the eyedropper in the color picker in PowerPoint no longer works. No matter where on the screen I put the cursor I get a gray color as opposed to the color immediately under the cursor as in Office365/2013/64 Powerpoint

help!

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2017-06-26T15:35:44+00:00

I, too, had this problem. Ran Office 365 ProPlus "Office Updates", which took PowerPoint from Build 7369.2130 up to 7766.2092, and the eyedropper issue is now non-reproducible on my machine. Seems if you can do the updates, you should be good to go.

For those who might not be able to update Office, or do and still see the issue, here's a workaround that's not too painful: The issue only seems to affect colors in the PowerPoint application; I was able to pick colors with the eyedropper from other apps just fine. (To do this, after activating the eyedropper tool, click anywhere in a PowerPoint slide, then hold and drag the mouse to anywhere else on your desktop; release the mouse button when over the desired color.) So, to pick a color that's on the slide, screenshot the slide, then use the eyedropper to pick the desired color from the screenshot.

Hope that makes sense...

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-12-02T12:26:29+00:00

    Hi Steve,

    Thank you for posting your question on Microsoft Community.

    You may refer to the following thread which discusses about the similar issue and see if it helps.

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office\_2013\_release-word/color-picker-unavalable-in-office-word-2013/1ed8cc2b-8cbd-42a1-a939-3959992ea320

    You may also refer to the suggestions from the below article and check if it helps.

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/apps\_windows\_10-winapps/known-issues-with-office-and-windows-10/3c468c15-d2d7-4534-9e91-da8fbcd5c724

    Try the suggestions and let us know the result at your earliest convenience.

    Thank you.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-12-02T12:38:51+00:00

    Neither of these links even remotely address the fact that the eyedropper isnt working on Office2016 Powerpoint and it was working on 2013. I attach a screen shot showing the issue

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-12-03T11:38:57+00:00

    Hi Steve,

    Thanks for your response.

    Unfortunately we were not able to reproduce the issue, let’s refer to the below steps and check if it helps.

    Method 1: Ensure you have installed all Office Updates as well as Windows updates, restart the computer and check if it helps.

    1. Click on File on the ribbon of OneNote 2016.
    2. Go to Account in the File Settings.
    3. Click on Update Options and click on Update now.
    4. Wait till the time updates are installed, verify the result.

    Method 2: Repair Office installation.

    1. Open Control Panel, Program and Features.
    2. Find and select your Office or Outlook installation.
    3. Click Change.
    4. Select Quick Repair then click the Repair button. (In older versions of Office, the option is called Repair).

    Hope it helps. Try the suggestions and let us know the result at your earliest convenience.

    Thank you.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-12-03T15:47:08+00:00

    Sadly neither method worked. I also uninstalled and reinstalled Office2016 and that didnt help either. The eyedropper doesnt work, only picks up gray as per the screen shot.

    Will uninstall O2016 and roll back to O365/2013/64

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