Eyedropper Glitchy

Experiencing same bug since Illustrator V10!

Eyedropper sometimes works sometimes doesn't. In this grab I'm trying to colour the text the same colour as the yellow graphic. Dropper picks up colour (see swatch pane) but does not apply it to text.

My settings are all correct. In the past, the workaround was to deselect the first box in the settings pane and then try - it worked. But now it isn't.

Thoughts?

P.S. I also can't seem to find the Character or Paragraph Styles panels - where are they? To be clear: not the Character and Paragraph panels, but the STYLES panels.