Returning Player
Can anyone tell me…
On a Soul Shard there are 7-8 lines of effect some are Grey out and some in Orange.
What do this color differences mean and how it affect game play (like which color is active and passive like in cube)?
Thank you very much.
You need to find Hellforge Embers to unlock the higher levels of the Soul Shards.
Check out Soul Shards Explained on Maxroll and some of their Build Guides.
There’s lots of useful information there and some that New Players should take with a shaker of salt. 
Read this article here to save time:
https://maxroll.gg/d3/resources/soul-shards-explained
Grayed out effects require that Shard to be at higher ranks, they simply tell you how or when it will be unlocked in a parenthesis. You see grayed expression have notes pointing at the ranks of the Soul Shard; think them as unidentified item affixes where Hellforge Embers only way to identify and unlock these traits.
Each appliance of Hellforge Ember unlocks a rank with random traits from the Soul Shard up to three times. At their initial base rank, which is zero, they offer their core power but those are fixated. At rank 1 and rank 2 Shards grant random unique affixes with a higher range on top of their initial powers, but at rank 3 their real power and worth will be revealed to you.
Each gained rank also grant higher grades for augmenting items with 10th recipe in the cube to replace high level legendary gems. At rank 3 a Soul Shard can be used to replace a level 125 legendary gem and apply 625 main stat augments; stat type depending on Flawless Royal gems used. Backdraw here is, legendary gems and Whispers of Atonement can be upgraded higher than level 125 where Shards are static for augments.
Hellforge Embers can drop anywhere, but their drop chance seem to scale better with higher difficulty; where they drop abundantly in T16 Nephalem Rifts and Vision fissures. When dropped from a monster or a chest by luck, you see them as a Consumable with red beam but it shows as a legendary item on the minimap.
You can stack them in a single square, then right click on them from your inventory to apply on Soul Shards by left clicking. Pressing down Shift while left clicking allow you to repeatedly apply Embers without needing to stop.
thanks you all very much.