Help w if formula

[CSGREY]

HI....I have a column of designations. Call it column A...A1,A2,A3...all the way up to 27A,27B,27C...some of the cells in the columns are blank. i want to use an if formula to add an X into another column if there is a value in column A and to leave blank the corresponding cell if there is no value.
I woudl write it like this...=if(A1(with value A1 in it)="missing secret word",X,"")
I need to know what the term is for "symbol of any kind"...or the missing secret word...

[protonLeah]

=if(isblank(a1),"","x")

[CSGREY]

Thank you Ben...worked like a champ!!