My situation is as follows:

Sheet1!A1:Sheet1!A6 contain six numeric values, say 1 through 6, respectively.

Sheet2!A1:Sheet2!A3 contain three cell references to Sheet1!A1 through
Sheet1!A3, respectively.

When I cut cells Sheet1!A4:Sheet1!A6 and paste them over Sheet1!A1:Sheet1!A3
all the cell references on Sheet2 get replaced with "=Sheet1!#REF!".

If I perform the same operation by copying the data (rather than cutting
it), pasting, then deleting the copied data I get the expected
behavior--seeing the new data for cells Sheet1!A1:Sheet1!A3 appear by
reference on Sheet2 in the proper cells.

I also noticed that if I use a cut operation I cannot "Paste Special" but if
I use a copy operation I can.

I referenced the help on this error. From the "Correct a #REF! error" help
page:

"You may have deleted cells that were referred to by other formulas, or you
may have pasted cells that you moved on top of cells that were referred to by
other formulas."

So that tells me that I will see the behavior I am seeing, but it does not
tell me why. Interestingly, this statement would lead me to believe that if
I highlighted cells Sheet1!A1:Sheet1!A3 and pressed the delete key I should
get a #REF! error on each of cells in the range Sheet2!A1:Sheet2!A3; this,
however, is not the case.

I don't understand why cut operations are treated fundamentally different
than copy operations in Excel. Isn't cut just a copy followed by a delete of
the original data? Yet if I do a copy followed by delete I see dramatically
different behavior.

Thanks in advance.

mike