how come the template for my attribute does not work using this code?
<xsl:template match="/">
 <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="*">
 <xsl:element name="name(.)">
  <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
 </xsl:element>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="@period">

</xsl:template>
thanks.

You never select an attribute in an xsl:apply-templates instruction, therefore the template for @period will never fire. Templates only fire when the match pattern matches a node to which you are applying templates.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference