I replaced it with:

<xsl:template match="@*">
<xsl:attribute name="{name()}" select="normalize-space(.)"/>
</xsl:template>


ah yes, that's the right correction, but this template will never be
executed as you don't appear to apply templates to attribute nodes at
any point.

mostly you generate attrbutes here

	      <entry ie="{$foobar}" name="{para}"
	      ref="{following-sibling::entry[1]/para}"
	      usage="{following-sibling::entry[2]/para}"/>

and apparently want that to be

	      <entry ie="{normalize-space($foobar)}" name="{normalize-space(para)}"
	      ref="{normalize-space(following-sibling::entry[1]/para)}"
	      usage="{normalize-space(following-sibling::entry[2]/para)}
	      "/> 

If there may be multiple para nodes as children of an entry you'll need
string-join as well, if not then not.

David

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