So, you are ready to create your XSLT stylesheets. You've acquired your tools and have created a simple "Hello World!" implementation but for some reason the processed output does NOT look like you expect it to! You may be encounting the "XSLT default rules" phenomenon.
Here is a Flash demonstration of the creation of a "Hello World!" XSLT 1.0 stylesheet along with a discussion of how the built-in or default rules of XSLT can get in the way of your goals.