Visible colored mask. please

[Briansdad]

Currently, masks are only visible by a marquee outline. Is there a setting that shows a colored masked area like I had in my old Corel Draw (now unusably out of date)?
The marquee alone doesn't give hardly any indication as to what feathering will look like.

[LeviFiction]

Yes, there are several methods that different people use. The easiest one that's actually built into PSP is technically called an overlay. Also called generally a Ruby lithe.

To view the overlay first select the mask in the Layers palette. Then on the layers palette there should be a picture of a mask when you hover over it it should say "Highlight mask area". If you don't see this icon it's probably hidden behind the drop-down arrow.

The other option is to go the Layers menu and select "View Overlay"

Or use the shortcut key Ctrl + Alt + V

The color of the overlay is found in the layer properties for the mask. The default is red at 50% opacity.

[Briansdad]

Selecting an area did not produce a layer.

selection does note create a layer

Promoting to a layer does not produce an mask icon or drop-down arrow

promote to layer, no mask icon

There is no option [view overlay] available - greyed out
Ctrl + Alt + V opened my desktop image in my browser!

Seems like just selecting is not the same as creating a mask???

[LeviFiction]

No, it's not the same. You can create a mask from a selection but a mask is a very specific kind of layer.

To get a colored overlay for selections you have to select "Edit selection" from the Selections menu. It'll give the same overlay as the mask overlay I pointed to earlier.