Kreol2013: Ultimately, this is a question of what constitutes the sorting criteria. Simply say 'by shades of colors' is quite ambiguous. What are your criteria for 'shades of colors'? One could, for example, sort by the R, G or B values in the RGB colour scheme, or by the C, M, Y, K values in the CMYK colour scheme or by the H, S, L values in the HSL colour scheme. You need to work out what your criteria are according to one of these schemes. Compared to C, M, Y, K or H, S, L, it's quite easy to do R, G, B sorts because Excel works in the RGB colour scheme; conversions (for which algorithms are available) would be required for the others. Using the RGB colour scheme, for example, you could sort by Red, Green or Blue intensity, with one or more of the others as a secondary/tertiary criterion, each in ascending or descending order.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]