Sorting colonies, ships, planets

While watching the AI play in my map I found myself sorting more than usual because it was not me building the stuff. I noticed that some of the sorts are still not working properly, such as colony by producing. I have not seen any threads on sorting since I came onto the forum, and a search on "sort" is not very productive, too many matches. Is there an expert on sorts out there who can post a summary to this thread as a FAQ on what works, what is broke, and how to get the most useful information by sorting techniques ?

[JenMax]

I, for one, would like to see added to the sort list a check box which allow the user to designate items to be ingored (and eithe rput at the bottom, or "hidden" in any further "sorts" in that session. Once you leave the screen /close that window, defaults would be restored. OR have two sort windows...t