I got into a healthy discussion at a client's site about the pros and cons of using Lists vs. Document libraries. The client was under the impression that lists and libraries are basically the same thing. My experience was the opposite, that they are quite different, and libraries are for storing documents and lists are for storing cells of information (like a spreadsheet). Following are some notes on that topic.
In addition I had thought, based on various blogs and books, that list attachments are not indexed. For example from a reputable Admin Guide to SP 2007: "There are also objects that will not be indexed and therefore not searchable:
Not sure where this confusion has come from, but one guess is MS was publishing the fact that list attachments weren't indexed since it is a widely held supposition, but then they slipped in the feature without a lot of fanfare.
I then learned, through testing, that attachments ARE indexed. A nice surprise! However, per my note below (item 1) the content of the name of the document are NOT indexed. Interesting.
I dug a little deeper and did find some points about list attachments that suggest a list is probably not the best way to house documents if the organization wants to take advantage of the full range of SP features:
1) The title of the document is NOT indexed. So an end user would not be able to search on the title of the document. Example: I attached a document titled "Copy of Test Lobster.doc" but after incremental indexing I get no results searching on the word "lobster." (medium issue)
2) I can attach multiple documents to one list item, which could cause problems (minor issue)
3) You can't (to the best of my knowledge) display the name of the attached document. You only see the paperclip that signifies the attachment. (major issue)
4) You don't have document control, no check-in or check-out. (major issue)
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