David wrote...
The following scenario captures the essence of the problem:
In an empty spreadsheet, if I enter "" into cell A10 and then copy and
paste
values, A10 appears to be blank. However, if I select cell A1 and
press [end]
then down arrow, cell A10 will be selected. This suggests that A10 is
somehow
different to it's neighbouring blank cells? Can anyone please throw
any light
on this?

You are misstating what you're doing. In every version of Excel with
transition formula entry enabled OR disabled, if you type only two
double quotes and press enter, Excel will display two double quotes in
the cell (unless you've given the cell a number format that hides text
or set the text and background colors the same). If you then copy that
cell and paste special as values into a different cell, that cell will
also display the two double quotes.

It's pretty obvious you mean you entered the formula ="". If you copy
cells containing that formula and paste special as values into other
cells, those other cells may appear blank, but they contain text. THEY
ARE *NOT* BLANK CELLS.

This is a fundamental point when using Excel: appearances are often
deceiving. There are a great many types of cell contents that appear
blank but aren't. This particular type is the constant zero length
string. It differs from true blank cells by having a .Value property of
"" rather than Empty.