I've been asked more than a few times how to search for a specific field within a list so I decided to write this brief guide to walk you through the steps. The first step is to create a new list with a field, for example a status field - Open/Close. Now we want to find, for example, via the search box, the fields with the status "Open". This part is a bit complicated but don't worry! It's not too hard. Go to the Properties List.
Now we need to index our field so that the search application will recognize our files.
Go to Indexed columns.
Now Search will recognize our field.
Next we'll go to: Central administration -> Shared Services -> SharedServices (Your SSP name) -> Search settings -> Content sources
Click on your source and then on "Start Incremental Crawl" (Full Crawl is not necessary).
Now go to: Central administration -> Shared Services -> SharedServices (Your SSP name) -> Search settings -> Metadata property mappingsClick "New Managed Property".
Click Add Mapping.
Find you field, select it and then press OK.
Next - fill in the property name, description and chose your type (Text, Integer ...).
Now go to the search box on your site
Write the name of the field you are searching for and ":" space and the substance of the field you are searching for.
That's all! Now your search application will always be able to find the field within your list.
