johkar wrote:
> 1) Do I work from the root element and go deeper so that I don't
> overwrite...in general what is the best strategy?

You can't "overwrite" using XSLT. Things are output in the order, and 
nesting, that the stylesheet outputs them in. Focus on what you want to 
output and where you want to draw the information from. If the output 
document will follow roughly the same structure as the input document, a 
simple recursive tree walk via the xsl:apply-template operation and a 
template for each node that needs special handling (typically with the 
identity template as a catch-all for those nodes which can be copied 
through unchanged) is best practice. In those places where the output 
diverges from that structure, write the stylesheet logic "pull-style" -- 
generate the appropriately nested elements/attributes/text, with 
xsl:value or attribute value templates used to explicitly retrieve the 
information.

> 2) Do I have one identity template and one primary template match that
> I put all my apply-templates within so that nothing is copied to the
> output until all changes are made?

XSLT does not "make changes". It generates a new output document, which 
is typically (but not guaranteed to be) written to the output as 
stylesheet processing takes place. If that isn't acceptable, I'd suggest 
you have the stylesheet write to a buffer of some variety -- eg, build a 
DOM tree -- which you can then process atomically.

> 3) How can I use a common template to strip currency formatting for
> any section of the XML that I might also be doing other changes too?

See the xsl:call-template operation, which essentially lets you use a 
named template as a subroutine for other templates.