Of course

 empty(preceding-sibling::*)

and

 not(preceding-sibling::*)

test that the current <text> node does not have any preceding sibling
elements. As I (mis-)?read the OP, the request was about preceding <text>
sibling elements, in which case


 empty( preceding-sibling::text )

or

 not( preceding-sibling::text )

________________________________
Indeed.



Or, to be more literal and less XPath-idiomatic,



empty(preceding-sibling::*)



Thanks Mike! For this contribution and every other time youve rescued us from
ourselves.