Re: namespace problem

As to your question (how to match in the xhtml namespace only), one
helpful insight could be that the prefixes used in the XSLT do *not*
have to be the same as the prefixes used in the source documents
(which, indeed, may not always be consistent with one another either).
Or anywhere else. Only the namespaces must correspond; the prefixes
are only a way to get to the namespaces.

So neither of these would match 'char' in no namespace; one matches
'char' in the xhtml namespace ... and so does the other:

<xsl:template match="char"
  xpath-default-namespace="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
    ... matches 'char' in the xhtml namespace

<xsl:template match="xh:char"
   xmlns:xh="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
   ... matches 'char' in ... the xhtml namespace

Indeed, a helpful processor, when it sees both of these together in
the same XSLT, will warn you that you have a template clash. (Try it.
:-)