> so, am i not select the descendent elements of the department element?

sorry i misread your template

    <xsl:template name="workitem">

as 


    <xsl:template match="workitem">
 

 which would have meant the current node was a workitem. it is a named
 template called when the current node is department', as you say.

so you will select workitems but my guess of 

<xsl:sort select='*[name()=$sorted_field'

isn't going to work as the * there selects child elements of the
workitem which is empty.

probably your param is specifying an attribute of this element sooooo

<xsl:sort select='@*[name()=$sorted_field'

David


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

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