Removing donors serverside on a split list is an absolute must. I don't know if you remember RDSL, but Skull, DH and I will never forget that rocky start. edit: (the remining list of the split race must be a complete list of course)
I also used to have a blank space between each cartel and each empire, so I could easily jump from faction to faction in Excel. Took me a while before I realized that the game coudn't see the first ship after a blank line. So now there are no blank lines.
The Autofilter is your friend. Click the second row (click on the 2 at the left) to select the whole row, then on the menu "Data...Filter...Autofilter". Excellent tool for shiplist analysis. Then check the dropdowns
edit: I usually "Window...Freeze panes" as well with cell F3 selected before applying the autofilter.
Then before saving I remove the autofilter and unfreeze the panes, though I don't think that makes any difference.
Use care when editing (especially copying and pasting rows) with the autofilter on to avoid race discontinuities, the autofilter is mostly handy for analysis, allowing to filter the list by any column...or multiple columns - most useful. (say, for light cruisers carrying PFs) You can also apply custom conditional filters with it too...
edit: also, the autofilter is disturbed by blank rows much as the dynaverse server is, it will only filter up to the first blank row.