Question : Better Search - Full-Text Indexing?

I need to create a search for my ASP.NET/C# site.  We're using SQL Server 2000.

This is what I'm doing temporarily (which is obviously not a great way to do it)--

I have a view created with the following:
SELECT p.Id
      , c.CategoryName
      , m.name AS ManufactureName
      , p.ProductName
      , p.ProductDesc AS ProductDescription
      , p.ProductDesc1 AS ProductDetail
      , p.ImageName

      , (c.CategoryName + ' '
      + p.productname + ' '
      + m.name + ' '
      + p.ProductName + ' '
      + Convert(nvarchar(max), p.ProductDesc) + ' '
      + Convert(nvarchar(max), p.ProductDesc1)) As 'KitchenSink'
FROM dbo.Products AS p INNER JOIN
      dbo.Manufacturer AS m ON p.ManufacturerId = m.Id INNER JOIN
      dbo.Category AS c ON p.CategoryId = c.id
WHERE (p.IsActive = 1) AND (c.IsActive = 1) AND (m.IsActive = 1) AND (p.isCatalog = '0')

Then from my webpage, I'm calling a stored proc that basically selects everything from that view where "KitchenSink Like '%whatever%search%string%'.

How can I do a better search?

I was looking in to Full-Text Indexing but didn't know if I'd need to index the view (which I'm running into snags on because the ProductDesc and ProductDesc1 fields are text fields and I can't create an index on the view because of that, the error says).

Can I index the multiple tables somehow and search? I'm a complete newbie to Full-Text Indexing so any help would be SO appreciated.

Answer : Better Search - Full-Text Indexing?

Full text indexing is one way to go. Another way would be to create a keywords table and have a productskeyword join table. You could have a trigger on insert/update to add to the 2 tables.

For example
Products
ItemID ItemDescription
1, 100% cotton short sleeve t-shirt
2, 50/50 cotton poly blend

Keywords
KeywordID, Keyword
1, Cotton
2, short
3, sleeve
4, t-shirt
5, shirt -- if you decide to do words with/without prefix/suffix/stems/plurals, etc
6, long
7, long sleeve -- if you  allow phrases
8, blend

ItemKeywords
ItemID, KeywordID
1,1
1,2
1,3
1,4
1,5
2,1
2,8

Now, you can simply do your select with
JOIN ItemKeywords ik
ON ik.ItemID = products.ItemID
JOIN Keywords k
ON k.KeywordID = ik.KeywordID