Eyedropper tool not picking up colors

I've checked the eyedropper tools settings and it is set as follows:

I'm trying to select only a portion of my text to change as a highlight color, not the entire text box. I can only select the entire text box in order to change the color. Something similar is also happenning with objects. I can't change the color unless I convert it into a compound object.

This is what happens when I try selecting individual text in my live text box tool.