Hello Kent,

Do not use RANK, use instead:
=COUNTIF($A$1:$A$99,""&A1)+COUNTIF(A$1:A1,A1)
and copy down.
If identical values should get identical ranks, substitute the second
term by 1.

This formula can deal with number AND with strings. RANK is an
obsolete function, I suggest.

Regards,
Bernd