You've looked at those cells and verified that the previous owner didn't put
space characters in the cells???

You can use =len(a1) to see if what's there is has a length larger than 0.

===
But if you have formulas that evaluate to ""
like:

=if(a1="ok",b1+c1,"")

And then convert to values, then this could be the culprit.

Just to verify...
Select an offending cell.
then hit tools|options|transition tab|turn on "transition navigation keys"
then ok your way out.
Look at the formula bar. Do you see an apostrophe?

If yes, then you've found the problem.

I do this (either in code or manually).

Select all the cells
edit|replace
what: (Leave empty--no space, not anything)
with: $$$$$ (some unique set of characters)
replace all

Then once more
edit|replace
What: $$$$$ (same unique set of characters)
with: (Leave empty--no space, not anything)
replace all

(Replace will limit itself to the used range, so you don't have to worry about
going to IV65536.)

Now select one of those previously offending cells.
look at the formula bar. (TaDa!)

Don't forget to turn this off:
tools|options|transition tab|"transition navigation keys"

It does stuff that most excel users don't like.

Reggie wrote:

I have a very large spreadsheet that was given to me by someone who created
it from a database. I need to do a CountA to help sort it. But the "empty"
cells, which look blank to me, are not. So the CountA counts every cell.

Would you know how I can get the cells that look empty to be seen as blank
so I can do a valid CountA?

--

Dave Peterson