> I am trying to test whether a current node is an ancestor of 
> a menu node
> with a dept attribute equal to $depth. I appear to be 
> struggling with this
> conceptually and would appreciate any help!!
> 
> <xsl:if test="//menu[@dept != $dept]/ancestor::menu ">

You just want

test=".//menu[@dept != $dept]"

Note the "." to force selection to start at the current node: //menu starts
from the root of the tree. The final /ancestor::menu doesn't appear to
relate to anything in the requirement as stated, so I left it out.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/