Hi David,

so I see how to use dynamically assign values to attribues but now my
problem is with a test that the value of the attribute $node (defined as
GARDEN) matches the name of the parent node for the current attribute. 
I don't think my test is constructed right. 

<xsl:param name="attr">ROSE</xsl:param>
<xsl:param name="value">RED</xsl:param>
<xsl:param name="node">GARDEN</xsl:param>
...
    <xsl:template match="@*" priority="10">
    <xsl:variable name="test" select="$node"/>
       <xsl:attribute name="{$attr}">
            <xsl:choose>
                <xsl:when test="$test=parent[name()]"><xsl:value-of
select="$value"/></xsl:when>
                <xsl:otherwise><xsl:value-of select="."/></xsl:otherwise>
            </xsl:choose>
        </xsl:attribute>
 ...    

thanks for any light anyone can shed...

Ann Marie