You are already in the context of main/timer when you start the choose
statement (because of the template match). This means that you should be
able to use:

<xsl:when test="text() = 'On'">

or

<xsl:when test=" . = 'On'">

to get your desired result. Or, in the case shown, its more concise to
say:

<xsl:template match = "main/timer">
	Timer is <xsl:value-of select="."/>
</xsl:template>

and get rid of the choose statement altogether.

Rgs,

Ben

 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list