if there is an attribute
File: Data.xml <para color="blue" flavor="mint" author="jm"> test </para> File: Transform.xslt <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0"> <xsl:output method="text" /> <xsl:template match="para"> <xsl:if test="@flavor">flavor</xsl:if> <xsl:if test="@font">font</xsl:if> <xsl:if test="@author = 'jm'">author</xsl:if> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> Output: flavorauthor