intramolecular trapping of the aminoenol intermediate derived from o-acyl/formylanilines and α-hydroxydimethylacetals/ketals followed by rearrangement/aromatization in the presence of acid. Important features include the use of α-hydroxydimethylacetal/ketal as an α-hydroxycarbonyl equivalent, excellent regiocontrol, good functional group tolerance, selectivesynthesis of acylindoles, gram-scale synthesis, and