IBM Retreive the first element node whose localName is "p". Import it into a new Document with deep=false. Using isEqualNode check if the original and the imported Element Node are not equal the child nodes are different. Import with deep and the should still be unequal if validating since the new document does not provide the same default attributes. Import it into another instance of the source document and then the imported node and the source should be equal. Neil Delima 2002-06-10