> >  I'm wondering if it's possible to
> > normalize all the space without removing the leading and trailing 
> > whitespace?
> 
> <xsl:variable name="x" select="normalize-space(concat('!',.,'!'))"/>
> <xsl:value-of select="substring($x,2,string-length($x)-2)"/>

I thought of that, but this normalizes the leading and trailing whitespace.

Perhaps that's what he wanted, who knows!

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