Mac v6.1 Bg color picker not working?

Question

I am new to this application and working through the
tutorial, and my version is outdated, yea I know, but maybe there
is something simple I am missing here...
When I select a table cell and click on the Bg icon to change
the background color, it brings up the color pallete, I get the
eyedropper tool, and if I mouseover colors on the screen it shows
the color code in the window at the top of the color pallete, but I
am unable to click anywhere on the screen and have it actually grab
that color....I just get an error chime. I can use the color
pallete OK, and can even type in the color code manually that I am
trying to pick up, but geez, that's a pain. Anyone aware if this is
a known problem or if there is a solution?

Answer 1

I've confirmed the color picker bug in 10.6.6. I filed a bug report.
Copy of my report:
Summary: The color picker dialog reports incorrect values on the RGB slider, using DigitalColor Meter as a reference. On the RGB sliders, the picker can fix itself if you use the spyglass on the test color patch.
However, the "web safe colors" Color Palette also has problems. The color names do not match the values reported by DigitalColor Meter.
This is reproducible on both my and my wife's mbp 5,5 13"
Steps to Reproduce:
a) for the RGB sliders:
1) Quit TextEdit if open
2) Open TextEdit
3) menu, choose: Format->Fonts->Show Colors
4) Using RGB sliders, pick Red=50, Blue=0, Green=0 (DO NOT TYPE, USE THE SLIDERS)
5) open DigitalColor Meter
6) chose RGB as Actual Value, 8-bit on Digital Color Meter.
7) Hover over test patch on color picker dialog of textedit.
b) for the "web safe colors" palette
1) Quit TextEdit if open
2) Open TextEdit
3) menu, choose: Format->Fonts->Show Colors
4) Using the Color Palettes, choose "web safe colors".
5) open DigitalColor Meter
6) chose RGB as Hex Value, 8-bit on DigitalColor Meter
7) Hover over the selection patches on the color picker dialog of textedit.
Expected Results:
for a) the rgb sliders, DigitalColor Meter will report 71,7,8 (instead of 50,0,0)
for b) looking at color "CCCCCC" DigitalColor Meter reports D4,D4,D4
Actual Results:
Regression:
I am using osx 10.6.6 as is my wife, problem appears on both computers. I first noticed this with the color picker invoked by OmniOutliner Pro 3.9.5, but reproduced with the color picker invoked by TextEdit.
I have color calibrated my screen with a huey pro, however switch back to the factory profile did not affect the "Expected Results:" shown above.