Thanks for both of your quick responses.  You've confirmed I am on the
right path.  There is a lot to think about.

Charles Knell wrote:
>use a stylesheet to create a stylesheet that does the transformation.

I think this would be possible, if complicated.  The user is not limited
on the number of tables they can insert, so there could be several
templates generated. It seems I would still end up with a variation of
3, as I would want to consolidate the number of templates to a minimum,
since the user could specify multiple tables with the same number of
sort statements. This would also mean I would have to output the master
stylesheet on the fly, too, to get the list of includes correct.

> (Do your users check off the columns they want to sort by in some user
>interface?

Yes.

Abel Braaksma wrote:
> I looked up an old template of myself where I faced a similar problem.

>The easy part is the number of sort statements. Just limit the amount
>to, say, 10, and create 10 sort statements.

This would certainly be the most expedient solution in the short term.

Again,
Thanks!