A more descriptive name for Adobe Designer 6.0 might be “InfoPath for PDF.” Announced last summer and currently in beta, Designer is a tool for building interactive, XML-aware forms that target both Acrobat and the free Adobe Reader.Adobe says that Designer targets Version 6 of the PDF viewers, but I had to upgrade both to the (still unreleased) Version 6.02 to use Designer-built forms. You can start a form from scratch or by importing a layout from various sources, including PDF, Word, and even InfoPath files.Either way, you can associate the form with an XML schema, but there’s limited run-time enforcement of schema constraints in either Acrobat or Reader. Some constraints, such as field lengths, are handled automatically. When I used a schema that included a regular-expression restriction, however, Designer’s preview didn’t complain when I entered text that didn’t match the pattern. In Acrobat, I was able to save an invalid XML instance. Bottom line: If you want real schema validation, you’ll have to implement it yourself in the back-end process that receives the data. Designer allows you to specify repeating elements, but they only work in concert with a server that regenerates the form with space for new data. You can’t grow a region interactively; but that’s a limitation of the Acrobat/Reader forms player, of course, not of Designer.Despite evident weaknesses, the Designer/Reader duo offers two key strengths: digital-paper fidelity and a ubiquitous run time. Using the free Reader, I was able to fill out a Designer-built form, print a copy for my records, and post its XML data to a server. No matter how the future of e-forms unfolds, that’s going to be a popular scenario. Technology Industry