Hi, i am a newbie to Max and 3d environments/tools in general, so i started by reading a few books to gain the theory about 3d space etc and now i have started making my way through a 3DBuzz Tutorial DVD which will take me through a majority of the fundamental aspects of 3ds Max.
I am currently using 3ds Max 2008 on a high spec PC.
My Question: In a new document, certain standard primitives CANNOT be converted to a editable poly (Sphere, Plane, Teapot etc) and those that CAN like the Box or Cylinder have the option to convert to editable poly, but the option in the quad menu is highlighted in blue. Do i need to set something in the software's options? On the video tutorial, the instructor just makes a plane, right clicks and converts to editable poly.
Please go easy, i am new as i said and it is just discouraging reaching a part in a video tutorial that you cannot identically match on your own.
Any help on this matter would be much appreciated .
Thanks. 
-sb