Re: XPath: excluding a descendant

> <xsl:apply-templates select="abcd:Gathering[not(self::LongitudeDecimal)]"/>

this would select all Gathering elements in abcd namespace that are not
LongitudeDecimal in no namespace (which is the same as
select="abcd:Gathering")

I guess you don't want to exclude anything at this point
just have

<xsl:apply-templates select="abcd:Gathering"/>

together with a template 

<xsl:template match="LongitudeDecimal"/>

that does nothing on thse elements.

then when you do want to process the elements do (according to taste)

<xsl:apply-templates
abcd:Gathering/GatheringSite/SiteCoordinates/LongitudeDecimal"
mode="somemode"/>

together with some templates in somemode to do whatever needs doing or

if you don't want a new mode do


<xsl:apply-templates
abcd:Gathering/GatheringSite/SiteCoordinates/LongitudeDecimal/node()"
/>

so you process the children of LongitudeDecimal.

this assumes Gathering is in a namespace and the other elements are not,
it's hard to tell from your post. If everything is in a namespace prefix
all element names in all Xpaths with abcd:

David

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