> The problem is that XSLT expects the <tr>'s to have an ending tag befor
> the when or otherwise tags end. 

that's not an XSLt requirement, it's a requirement of XML. If your stylesheet
is not well formed XML, it will be rejected by the XML parser before
XSLT ever sees it.

long form

<tr>
<xsl:if test="position() mod 2 = 1">
<xsl:attribute name="style">background-color:gray</xsl:attribute>
</xsl:if>
....

or simpler

<tr class="row{position() mod 2 = 1}">

and set up 
tr.row0
and 
tr.row1

in your css to do the colouring.

David

________________________________________________________________________
The Numerical Algorithms Group Ltd is a company registered in England
and Wales with company number 1249803. The registered office is:
Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, United Kingdom.

This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star. The service is
powered by MessageLabs. 
________________________________________________________________________