Is there a way an Independent Value set values can be sorted (Order By) ?

Hi - we are on R12 and using PIM. We have few catalogs which use Variant Attribute groups. The attributes are tied to Independent Value Set. When a user tries to create the item manually from the frontend, it is difficult to search a value for variant say 'COLOR' since there are thousands of values. The reason being these are not displayed in Alphabetical order or I should say not Sorted.

Question is - Is there a way an Independent Value set values can be sorted (Order By) ?

Any help or a workaround is appreciated. Thanks,