Publisher. How to access the colour picker?

[Chris26]

I had hoped to find the answer under "fx layer effects" in the help, but it does not mention this at all.  In the "FX layer effects, under Outline"How do I access the colour picker here please.  And why is this circle red all the time and how did it get red, i just can not figure this one out.  

[GarryP]

Drag from the pipette icon to anywhere on the screen. A magnified view under the mouse pointer will show you where you are picking from.
The red circle shows the last colour ‘picked’ (in some cases) and you can click it to apply that colour.

[walt.farrell]

To find it in the Help, search for "color picker" (without the quotes), and the answer is in the 3rd result, Sampling Colours: https://affinity.help/publisher/English.lproj/pages/Clr/samplingClr.html

[Pšenda]

3 hours ago, Chris26 said:

And why is this circle red all the time and how did it get red

Unfortunately, probably some default value - very annoying that it does not remember the last selected color.

 

[Chris26]

2 hours ago, GarryP said:

Drag from the pipette icon to anywhere on the screen. A magnified view under the mouse pointer will show you where you are picking from.
The red circle shows the last colour ‘picked’ (in some cases) and you can click it to apply that colour.

There I was clicking away on it at least 16 times...........expecting the obvious, unfortunately, clicking on these sort of icons is what I have been used to for so long, the last thing I expected was to click..hold...drag......🤨  

[Chris26]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

To find it in the Help, search for "color picker" (without the quotes), and the answer is in the 3rd result, Sampling Colours:

An obvious choice I suppose...mmmm.....my search terms were: Layers, fx, layer effects,  and colour picker did not even occur to me😩...I suppose that's the disadvantage of being someone who would write the help manual by including the obvious. 😀

[walt.farrell]

31 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

There I was clicking away on it at least 16 times.

You would do that to choose the Color Picker Tool. This is something different

[walt.farrell]

27 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

my search terms were: Layers, fx, layer effects,  and colour picker did not even occur to me😩...I suppose that's the disadvantage of being someone who would write the help manual by including the obvious.

I wouldn't consider any of those terms "obvious" for that item

But the basic issue, I think, is that you're trying to be too specific, for a function that is very general and included in many areas of the program. You need to look for the explanation in the more general sections of the Help. So, if your initial search doesn't work, you might look at the table of contents, and scan down to a topic that looks relevant, and work that way.

For the Publisher Help, the first "obvious" spot to look, in my opinion, is the User Interface section. But it doesn't help.

Next one is Color, and just looking at the topic titles there you'll find Selecting Colours, or Sampling Colours, which is the one you needed for this.

[Chris26]

33 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

For the Publisher Help, the first "obvious" spot to look, in my opinion, is the User Interface section. But it doesn't help.

Next one is Color, and just looking at the topic titles there you'll find Selecting Colours, or Sampling Colours, which is the one you needed for this.

Actually Walt you are right.  And grateful for the input.  It's simply that I am used to (on other software products) of finding operable functions and informaton under the particular menu item or function box so to speak rather than a generalised word like 'colour' or 'sampling colours'.  But yes, I take your point.

[Pšenda]

Unfortunately, and it's a big problem with all Affinity applications and their UIs, the creators don't respect the standard principles for creating an easy-to-use interface application vs. user. For example, with the mentioned color picker, but also all other elements that do something (Apply color, Fill/Stroke/Foreground/Background color, Erase color, Exchange Fill/ Stroke/Foreground/Background color) it is enough to use Hint/Tooltip to make it clear to the user, that he should click on the icon at all, and what it will do.