AlBruAn wrote:
> Thank you for suggesting a way of avoiding using CDATA and escaping the &.  
> My question is still this: how can I go about using data in the cell if any 
> is available or replacing it, as you've suggested, with the &#160 to ensure 
> the border is drawn around the cell?  As I mentioned in my original post, I 
> thought there might be a way of incorporating xsl:if along with xsl:value-of, 
> but I honestly don't know.

Use xsl:choose e.g. replace

<td><xsl:value-of select="ClaimNumber" /></td>

with

<td>
   <xsl:choose>
     <xsl:when test="normalize-space(ClaimNumber)">
       <xsl:value-of select="ClaimNumber"/>
     <xsl:when>
     <xsl:otherwise>&#160;</xsl:otherwise>
   </xsl:choose>
</td>

If you are using XSLT 2.0 then it is even easier
<td><xsl:value-of select="if (normalize-space(ClaimNumber)) then 
ClaimNumber else '&#160;'"/></td>

You should also investigate CSS 2 and the setting empty-cells: show. If 
your browser supports that (and Mozilla, Opera do) then you can avoid 
the above attempts and simply use CSS to ensure that empty cells are 
shown: <URL:http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/tables.html#empty-cells>


-- 

	Martin Honnen --- MVP XML
	http://JavaScript.FAQTs.com/