[Ben Wood]

I’d like to try this but I’m not sure what you mean by a couple of the steps.

– ctrl+alt+` (this will create a selection)

Is that ctrl,alt, and the single quote key next to Return all at the same time? This and variations with the modifier keys aren’t doing anything for me. What exactly is this selecting?

– click the quick mask in the toolbar

What toolbar – you mean in the channels pallette? When I make any kind of selection (like select all) I don’t see a quick mask appear anywhere onscreen.