Re: <xsl:apply-templates select="not('nodename')"/> ?

<xsl:apply-templates select="./apple"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="./orange"/>

they are OK but you could remove the ./ as it's not doing anything.

<xsl:apply-templates select="not(apple|orange)"/>

this is the boolean value true or false depending on whether there are
any elements of those names. You don't want to apply templates to a
boolean, but to a node set, so:

<xsl:apply-templates select="*[not(self::apple or self::orange)]"/>

David

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