Hi Lil:
Do you mean the SILENCE SELECT REGION option on the EDIT menu?
If so, it applies ONLY TO a SELECTED REGION -- if you don't have a region selected, it won't do anything.
If yours doesn't work on a "Selected Region," then something is broken on your WAVEPAD installation (my SILENCE works fine). You might try UNINSTALLING your WavePad, and re-installing a newly downloaded version.
Jerry