Use the following scenario to see the problems:

The steps marked with * designate incorrect behavior, I expect the correct behavior is obvious.

    1. Create new text document
    2. Click "Toggle Formatting Marks" see the empty paragraphs.
    3. Type "Enter" 10 times to create 10 empty paragraphs.
    4. insert a big table (6x6) after paragraph 5.
    5. Make some paragraphs non-empty, like "X" in line 3, in some table cells and on line 8.
    6. Move cursor to begin of document.
    7. Click "Find and Replace"
    8. For reference, enter "X" as find string and click "Find All"
    9. Note this correctly finds all "X" paragraphs, both inside and outside the table.
    10. Click "Regular expressions"
    11. Find empty paragraphs: search for "^$" and click "Find All"
    12. Most of the empty paragraphs outside the table are marked.
 *  13. The last empty paragraphs before the table and before the end of document are not marked *
 *  14. No cells in the table are marked *
 *  15. Note "Find Next" works correctly, and "Find Previous" moves to the begin of document *
    16. Select the whole table
    17. Check the checkbox "Current selection only"
    18. Note "^$" is still there and click "Find All"
 *  19. The non-empty paragraphs and the last empty one in the table are selected *
 *  20. Click "Find Next" and the first empty paragraph in the document is selected *
    21. Close Find dialogue
    22. Select the whole table
    23. Click "Find and Replace"
    24. Click “Find All”
 *  25. Note: non-empty cells and the last cell is selected *
    26. Click “Find All”
 *  27. Now the last two paragraphs of the table are selected *


My intention is to select all empty cells in the table and assign a different font and background color for the digits that are to be entered later into those cells.

See also bugs 34596, 129449 pertaining to last empty paragraphs.