  We develop a prescription for characterizing the strengths of metal lines
associated with Lyman-alpha forest absorbers (LYFAs) of a given neutral
hydrogen column density N_HI and metallicity [Fe/H]. This Line Observability
Index (LOX) is line-specific and translates, for weak lines, into a measure of
the equivalent width. It can be evaluated quickly for thousands of transitions
within the framework of a given model of the Lyman-alpha forest, providing a
ranking of the lines in terms of their strengths and enabling model builders to
select the lines that should be detectable in observed spectra of a given
resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. We compute the LOX for a large number of
elements and transitions in two cosmological models of the Lyman-alpha forest
at z=3 derived from a hydrodynamic simulation of structure formation, and we
discuss how the LOX depends on redshift and on model parameters such as the
mean baryonic density and radiation field. We find that the OVI (1032,1038)
doublet is the best probe of the metallicity in low column density LYFAs N_{HI}
\approx 10^{14.5} cm^{-2}). Metallicities down to [O/H] \sim -3 ([Fe/H] \sim
-3.5 with the assumed [O/Fe] ratio) yield OVI absorption features that should
be detectable in current high-quality spectra, provided that the expected
position of the OVI feature is not contaminated by HI absorption. The strongest
transitions in lower ionisation states of oxygen are OV(630), OIV(788), and
OIII(833), and are likely to be detected with next generation UV instruments.
Of the lines with rest wavelengths \lambda_r > 1216, which can potentially be
observed redwards of the \lya forest, the CIV(1548,1551) doublet is expected to
dominate in all LYFAs, regardless of the value of N_HI.
