Check the quick mask options. I think it is possible to change the red tint to other colors, and to make it invisible. That might be what happened to you. You can also change so that eraser does what paint brush used to do.
Double click on the quick mask icon to open the options.
In the Quick Mask Options dialog (see Don’s post), there is a selector for "Color Indicates:", with a choice of ‘Masked Areas’ or ‘Selected Areas’.
You probably have it set for ‘Masked Areas’.
Thanks for the suggestions, but over the weekend I "played" with it a little more and determined that the mask is actually working but it not at full strength. When I go to invert the selection it comes up with a message "Warning no pixels are more than 50% selected. The selection will not be visible" I guess that is why the marching ants are not visible. I pres enter and it lets me invert the selection but when I copy it (Ctl J) the selected area is only at about 30% opacity. I have checked and double checked the percentage of my brush and I my opacity is at 100%. I have checked the quick mask dialog box and everything look good on that side as well. Any other ideas?
This message usually comes up when the selection is heavily feathered. You can try it on a new unfeathered selection to prove that the tool is OK.
While Quick Mask is active, look in the Channels palette, and isolate the Quick Mask channel. Are the blacks black, and the whites white, or is there grey instead?
John & John,
Eureka! I found it. When you go into the quick mask mode. The color palette on the right side of the screen has a slider which was turned down. Once that was increased back to 100% the marching ants came back and the mask works as usual.
Thanks for all the help
Carl
Kinda what I was saying in message 1. Sorry for not being more explicit.