Sort cells by color in Excel

If you're like me, you like to color your Excel cells depending on any number of factors: priority (red, yellow, and green), whether a value is up or down (green and red), or just to highlight it to draw your attention to it the next time you open the workbook (any color you like!).

To do this, simply click the Text Highlight button on the ribbon and select your color:

Once your color is chosen, simply select any additional cells you want to mark and click the button again.

That's all very handy, but did you know that you can sort by the color of your cells? This works in both Excel 2007 and Excel 2010.

Select the cells you wish to sort. On the ribbon under Sort & Filter, select Custom Sort. Now select the column you want to sort, select Cell Color under Sort On and then any color choices you have made will appear in the Order dropdown:

This works just as well for Font Color. So now all of that cell and font coloring you've done can be really useful.

Suzanne