ISBLANK() not working with "R1C1" reference

Tony,

thanks. i had forgotten about INDIRECT. I did a workaround but I think this would have worked.

do you know of any reference that explains which functions can actually take the quoted "R1C1" reference.

a good explanation of what circumstances excel would recognize those quotes as enclosing a reference rather than a text value would be helpful. in hind sight, i wonder why they couldn't have use scare quotes,e.g. 'R1C1' to denote that as a reference. i guess maybe too many possessives still around or something.

but thanks much for the idea.

brian