The Microsoft XSL Processor is among the first software programs to demonstrate the utility of the new style language for Web publishing. The preview of the Microsoft XSL processor is available as an ActiveX control or as a DOS command-line utility.
Developers can download the software to test it with their own XML documents.
The product assumes that you have valid XML markup in your documents. One way to validate that assumption is to test your documents with an XML parser. The Microsoft site also contains one of the first online tutorials on XSL, walking the visitor through 24 lessons that explain how to create XSL style sheets. The processor handles a number of interesting XSL features, including reordering elements and inserting generated text without elaborate scripting. Because XSL is being designed for data as well as documents, it has provisions for manipulating elements as they are styled, which CSS lacks.