In Excel 2003, I'd like to apply colored shading to a cell if it's blank.

I select:
Cell Value Is
equal to
""

When I check it, the value box contains:
="""""" (6 quotation marks)

I can edit the value so it reads:
="" (2 quotation marks)

and that works.

But there's got to be an easier way to enter a conditional format to check
for a blank cell. Any suggestions?

Thanks.