InDesign 17 Eyedropper tool not copying text styling

[Trevor5E5B]

InDesign 17 eye dropper won't copy text styles. When I copy text from an email to replace in my document and select the eye dropper tool, the little "t" beside the eye dropper doesn't appear when it hovers over existing text styles that I am trying to copy. I click once - THEN the little "t" appears - but when I click the text style I want to copy, it just unselects my highlighted text. This is infuriating. Please fix! Using Mac OS 12.0.1 Monterey iMac Pro.

[John Mensinger]

Hmmm...it's working here.

When I read your description of your attempt, it seems backward to me. I never use the eyedropper for styling text, but here's how it worked when I tested it just now:

Option #1:

1. Select the target text
2. Choose the Eyedropper
3. Click the source text
4. Source formatting applied to target

Option #2:

1. Choose the Eyedropper
2. Click the source text
3. Drag-select across the target text
4. Source formatting applied to target

If you double-click the Eyedropper, the Character Settings and Paragraph Settings options are checked, right?

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Trevor5E5B:

I'm not experiencing this issue as I understand it. Note that this video was taken on Big Sur (11.6) and InDesign 17. I won't upgrade the OS for a few weeks at least, and I will continue my layout work on 16.4 to give Adobe and Apple time to work out the bugs. I don't recommend updating everything the day the upgrades are released. 

~Barb

[Trevor5E5B]

Maybe Adobe shouldn't put out buggy software until it's been fully tested, but thank you for the helpful comment.

[Creamer Training]

If two people (now three) people are saying the tool works as expected, how is that a bug? 

[Trevor5E5B]

Adobe forums: I'm having an issue!
People on Adobe forums: I'm not having that issue, so you're not having an issue.

Congrats you're not having the issue! How is that helpful to anyone? Go troll somewhere else.

[Creamer Training]

No trolling. What it means is there is something unique to your system* that could be causing the problem. It could be a glitch during install, an OS conflict, improper usage, etc.  At this point, it would be hard to tell without more trial and error testing.

*When I say "your system", bear in mind that this could affect hundreds, of not thousands, of users. 

[John Mensinger]

No one said you weren't experiencing what you say you are.

"Buggy" implies that we all would be having the same problem, so reporting that we don't is indeed helpful to getting your issue diagnosed. That's the first thing we do here; try to reproduce your problem at our desks. When we can, maybe it confirms a suspected bug and comforts you in the knowledge that you're not alone. When we can't, at least that narrows it down to your installation on your system. Not quite as comforting, I know.

Have you tried resetting preferences?

[Ashutosh_Mishra]

Hi Trevor,

I agree with John. Resetting preferences should help with your concern.

Also let us know if you have this issue while working on a specific file? If that is the case, try saving the file as IDML & let us know if it helps.

Regards,

Ashutosh

[Creamer Training]

I normally use paragraph, character, and object styles--however, I just tested the tool and it works as expected. 

[Lil28762706cfan]

I'm having same problem on Monterey12.6.3 - latest version of Indesign. Cannot copy text styles anymore with the eyedropper tool. Have selected all preferences, b

ut when I try to eyedrop text styles, it just outlines my text. @adobe has there been any updates to this glitch?

[defaultk3r9x9kb5ocq · Accepted solution]

I'm having issues with the eyedropper as well. It used to have text styling options, now...now I don't even know what it does. If I double click the icon to adjust settings, the only thing in the window that appears is a dropdown that says 'When applying colors:'

I want to be able to use the eyedropper to pick up/copy the text style complete with font, font size, font color, font style and apply it to another piece of text, like it used to do.

Now it doesn't seem to do anything to the target text that I can tell.