Output text with xsl:text
File: Data.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> <document> <author>author</author> <title>XSLT 2.0 Programmer's Reference</title> <copyright/> <date/> <abstract>abstract </abstract> </document> File: Transform.xslt <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0"> <xsl:variable name="owner">John Wiley and Sons</xsl:variable> <xsl:template name="copyright"> <xsl:text>Copyright ?</xsl:text> <xsl:value-of select="$owner" /> <xsl:text> 2004</xsl:text> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> Output: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> author XSLT 2.0 Programmer's Reference abstract