Can't change color in CS4

I have the book teach yourself visually cs 4. I have been working with the shape tool. Well when I pick a color from the bar and go to use it, Its black. I tried to pick several different one's and still when I clicked to draw the shape its black. It will work with White and gray. Thats all. Can someone tell me how to get this to work?

Teeny

not working in greyscale by mistake?

Quick things to check:
1. Make sure Image mode is NOT in grayscale. (edit: I type too slow)
2. After you click on the shape tool, pick the color from the menu bar that has the various shapes, i.e., rectangle, line, polygon, etc.

Its not in grey scale and I did pick the color from the top bar. Still black.

Now if I do text, I can use colors.


Teani

If you're working on a layer's mask, rather than the layer itself, this might happen. Is that a possibility?

if it was a layer mask, you wouldn't see any shades?

could be an alpha channel?