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
    2016-02-01T06:08:53+00:00

    I am running 32-bit Office 365 on Windows 10 x64, and I have the same problem in Powerpoint.

    The eyedropper tool is locked on 25% grey, no matter what I do. I think it's a clear bug. Here's hoping someone reports it so it can get fixed.

    The magnifier certainly isn't running. I can't remember if I've ever used it on this machine (I don't think so). I'm just a regular user. Nothing special about my computer world.

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=0edf0943-9359-48a4-af72-e7b09f93d4d6)

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=ad80a320-d35e-4423-a22e-67bb7d0053b9)

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  2. Steve Rindsberg 99,176 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-02-01T15:37:01+00:00

    Thanks for the add'l info.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-12T21:45:03+00:00

    IT IS NOT 64 BIT SPECIFIC!  I HAVE 32 BIT AND HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!  Yes, I'm screaming with the CAPS.  I'm using Office 365 2016 32 bit and Win 10.  Have had the problem some time.  This used to be a wonderful feature.

    Note the gray picker in the lower center.![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=48a5e058-75e9-4145-b146-c21130dcc370)

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-12T22:36:15+00:00

    I noted that on a Mac site, it was considered an interface problem between Office and the OS.  I have the same problem.  I have two systems, both Windows 10 and Office 2016 32 bit which both have the same problem.  It was not present with Win 7 or 8.1, but it did start with some update to Windows 10 and Office 2013.  I posted the problem with Microsoft, but of course will not get feedback.

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