Datasheet

Book VI
Chapter 1
Building and
Maintaining Data Lists
591
Sorting Data
Sorting a data list on font and
fill colors and cell icons
Although you normally sort the records of a data list or rows of a table on
the values (entries) contained in one or more columns of the list or table,
Excel 2010 also enables you to sort on the font or fill color or cell icons that
you assign to them as well. These colors and icons are assigned by using
Conditional Formatting to mark those values in the columns of a data list or
table that are within or outside certain parameters with a distinctive font
or fill colors or cell icon (see “Conditional Formatting” in Book II, Chapter 2
for details).
To sort a data list on a font color, fill color, or cell icon in a single field of
the table, you click its AutoFilter button and then highlight the Sort by Color
option on the drop-down menu. Excel then displays a continuation menu on
which you click the font color, fill color, or cell icon to use in the sort:
✦ To sort the records so that those with a particular font color in the
selected column — assigned with the Conditional Formatting Highlight
Cell Rules or Top/Bottom Rules options — appear at the top of the data
list, click its color swatch in the Sort by Font Color section on the con-
tinuation menu.
✦ To sort the records so that those with a particular fill color in the
selected column — assigned with the Conditional Formatting Highlight
Cell Rules, Top/Bottom Rules, Data Bars, or Color Scales options —
appear at the top of the data list, click its color swatch in the Sort by
Font Color section on the continuation menu.
✦ To sort the records so that those with a particular cell icon in the
selected column — assigned with the Conditional Formatting Icon Sets
options — appear at the top of the data list, click the icon in the Sort by
Cell Icon section of the continuation menu.
You can also sort the data list on more than one color or cell icon in the Sort
dialog box opened by clicking the Custom Sort option on the Sort & Filter
button’s drop-down list on the Ribbon’s Home tab or on the Sort by Color
continuation menu.
When you want to sort the records in a data list on more than one font or fill
color or cell icon, you select the field with the color or icon in the Column
drop-down list, click Font Color, Fill Color, or Cell Icon in the Sort On drop-
down list, and then click the color swatch or icon to use in the first level of
the sort in the Order drop-down list.
If you need to add another sort level, you click the Add Level button and
then repeat this procedure of selecting the field in the Column drop-down
list, selecting the Font Color, Fill Color, or Cell Icon in the Sort On drop-down
list, and selecting the specific color or icon in the Order drop-down list.
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