>If there's a schema, and if you're lucky, the elements will be defined

Hahaha. :) Yes, a schema would be nice, but all I have is a DTD, and as it
happens the document isn't even fully valid against it (whence my amusement).
But going forward, we'll definitely be using schemas, so I will store away
your schema-based recommendation for a future date.

In the meantime, thank you very much for the function - Andrew Welch suggested
a variation on this too and it looks as if they will both save me some
trouble.

Cheers,

Emma Burrows