The * wildcard

Right now the descriptions in the input document only use a few HTML tags, but potentially they could use full HTML up to and including tables, images, styles, and more. You could include separate template rules for each of these, but it's easier to specify a rule that applies to all elements.

  <!-- pass unrecognized tags along unchanged -->
  <xsl:template match="*">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>  

The * matches all elements that are not matched by some more specific rules. It only matches element nodes, though. It does not match nodes for

• attributes

• comments

• processing instructions

• namespaces

• text

The output is the same in this case, though for a document that used more HTML it might be different.