TechNote

How to sample colors outside of the Fireworks environment in Windows

Introduction
A new feature in Fireworks 2 allows users to sample colors outside the application by clicking the arrow by any of the numerous color wells in Fireworks and selecting the eyedropper from the swatches panel. The user may then move the eyedropper anywhere on the screen and select the color to use in Fireworks.

Windows limitations
By design, the Windows interface does not allow the cursor to function as it does on the Macintosh. Once the cursor leaves the application window, it's control is returned to the Windows API or to that of the application window it is over.Therefore, the sampling feature outside of the Fireworks application is limited. Inaccurate sample resultsalso can occur when the monitor is set forlower color depth.

To sample colors outside of the Fireworks environment, follow these steps:

1	Set the monitor display to 32 bit color depth in the Display Properties Settings tab in the Control Panel. This will insure accurate sampling of colors.
2	Click the eyedropper tool in the upper left of the swatches pop-up and hold down the mouse button. Continue to hold down the mouse button until the cursor is moved over the desired color to be sampled.
3	Release the mouse button over the desired color, it will now appear in the color well next to the selected pop-up arrow.