> 1. "grab any attribute and simply repeat it"
<xsl:copy-of select="@xxx" />

> 2. "grab IMPLIED attribute WHEN they're there
>     and deal with them"
You can't tell the DTD type of an attribute from XSL. Why do you single
out IMPLIED?

I think you want


<xsl:template match="Link">	
  <h2 name="{@linkid}">
      <xsl:copy-of select="@date"/>
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </h2>
</xsl:template>

David


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