Earlier many of us were using scripts or add-ons to filter or sort a dataset by font or cell fill color in Google Sheets. That’s the story of the past! A new built-in feature for the same is now available in Sheets.

Google has started rolling out this feature from early this month (March 2020). You can now filter or sort your data by font color (text color) or cell color using the Data menu Filter command. Google has announced the same via their G Suite Updates Blog.

As per the blog post, this feature will be available not only to G Suite customers but also to users with personal Google Accounts.

Let’s see how to filter/sort by cell font or cell background color in Google Sheets.

How to Filter by Font or Cell Color in Google Sheets

I have a sample list containing the advance amount requirement from employees.

The green color highlighted cells (as per the image below) indicate that the request has been approved and the orange color highlighted cells indicates that the request is under consideration.

See how I am filtering the approved advance amounts based on the cell fill color (background color).

• First of all, select the data range A1:B and filter it from the menu Data > Create a filter.
• Click on the down arrow on cell B1.
• Since we want to filter by the cell background color, click on Filter by color > Fill color and click on the color to filter by (as per our example, it the green color).

This way we can filter a dataset by cell color in Google Sheets.

To filter a dataset or table by font color, follow the above same steps. But instead of “Fill color” select “Text color”.

In the above example, the menu item “Text color” is disabled as there is no font color to filter by.

How to Sort by Font or Cell Color in Google Sheets

As already mentioned above, now you can sort your data by cell color or font (text) color in Google Sheets. Compared to filter by cell color, this sorting of data has one advantage!

Before coming to that (advantage) let me show you how to sort a dataset by font/cell color.

Steps to follow:

• Click on the drop-down on cell B1.
• Since we want to sort by the cell background color aka cell fill color, click on Sort by color > Fill color and click on the color to sort by.

What is the advantage of this feature (sorting) over filter by cell color?

The filter helps us to see our required data by filtering out (hiding) unwanted rows. On the other hand, using sorting, we can prioritize our viewing of data. I mean with sorting we can move our required data to the top of the table.

We can do multiple sort to prioritize our viewing of required data. That’s the said advantage. How?

Assume I want to sort the below list by the font colors Green > Blue > Red.

I can do that by following the below steps.

• Click on the Filter Drop-down > Sort by color > Text color > Red.
• Then click on Sort by color > Text color > Blue, and finally;
• Click on Sort by color > Text color > Green.

The output will be as below.

Conclusion

Filter/Sort by cell/font color was one of the most sought out features in Google Sheets. It’s good to see that Google has finally added that.

The above feature is only available within the Data menu ‘Create a filter’ as well as the Data menu ‘Filter view’.

It’s so far not available within the other filter tools in Google Sheets like the Slicer and Pivot Table.

If you are not seeing this feature on your sheet, go to the File menu and create a new sheet. Then check. Still not available? Wait for Google to roll out this feature for you.

Related Tutorials:

• Check Whether a Row Is Hidden and Highlight the Row above It.
• Highlight Rows Based on Issue and Return of Items.
• How to Highlight Largest 3 Values in Each Row in Google Sheets.
• How to Highlight Every Nth Row or Column in Google Sheets.
• Highlight Matches or Differences in Two Lists in Google Sheets.
• Date Related Conditional Formatting Rules in Google Sheets.
• How to Highlight Cells Based on Expiry Date in Google Sheets.
• Highlight Duplicates in Single, Multiple Columns, All Cells in Google Sheets.