> (i thought it would be given 
> "1.1.1.2" as that is the follwing sibling that has 3 dots?)

That's what it would be if I just used following-sibling::ve
the reason for using (.|following-sibling::v) is that the selection
finds the first three-dotter _starting from the current node_
so three dotters are indexed by their own attribute, as you want in this
case.

David

-- 
http://www.dcarlisle.demon.co.uk/matthew

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