I've recently been falling in love with XSLT and what it can accomplish for me. The heart and soul of Umbraco is built upon XSLT, so when I was first introduced I had a hard time adjusting to how everything would work. Last night that all changed. If you're in anyway confused as to how XSLT works, you should read the articles on WC3 Schools. Their XPATH chapter greatly helped me get a grasp on all the select statements going on.

Next you need to burn this XSLT element into your brain.

<xsl:copy-of select="" />

One of the major issues I've had with XSLT is not being able to see the XML/data that I'm playing with. This handy little element outputs whatever you put into the select attribute as XML that you can work with.

So if you want to learn XSLT and XPATH quicker, and you want to know where all the built-in Umbraco values come from, simply put this in your XSLT template.

<xsl:copy-of select="$currentpage" />

Now view source on the page calling the marco and you'll have some XML that you can touch and feel!

Combined with some reading at W3Schools for XPATH and you'll be well on your way to coding XSLT in no time!