InfoPath Dev

I'm very new to SharePoint and Infopath, and have been assigned the task of learning everything I can.

The first thing I've been asked is how we can search through data that was entered into an Infopath form, and submitted to our SharePoint server.

Specifically, we build some computers, and all of the build information, such as date built, built by, and all of the serial numbers for each part has been entered into an Infopath form, and submitted to a document library on our SharePoint server.  Now on the Document Library page, I have set up columns that show the system serial number, date built, and built by data fields, so its easy to find that information.

But how would I perform a search for other data that was submitted on the form, for example, the hard drive serial number?  I know I can add a column to the Document Library, but I don't want to do that for all of the different numbers that are on the form.  I'd just like to search through the data.

Thanks for any help!

If your SharePoint search is configured correctly, it should already be searching inside your documents that are stored in the SharePoint libraries. If you are not receiving your items back on search returns, it is possible that your SharePoint farm is not indexing properly. You should definitely bring that to the attention of your administrator. The other issue is that SharePoint search only indexes the first 64K of content from any document. If your documents are large, and the information is not found within the first 64K, this may be an issue. On another note, any time you promote columns to your document library, you are increasing the liklihood of those documents returning from search queries, because SharePoint indexing rates the column information higher (more important) than the actual content itself. Hope this helps.