The best way to select all but a specific element is to say:

<xsl:apply-templates select="*[not(self::element-to-ignore)]"/>

or, if iterating, say:

<xsl:for-each select="*[not(self::element-to-ignore)]">
...
</xsl:for-each>

When XSLT newbies first need to select all but a specific element, they will probably think of the following construct first:

<xsl:apply-templates select="*[name(  ) != 'element-to-ignore']"/>

<!--This will fail if the author decided to use SALES:product instead of 
sales:product -->
<xsl:apply-templates select="*[name(  ) != 'sales:product']"/>

Alternatively, you could use local-name( ). However, this prefix would ignore elements from all namespaces that have that particular local name, which might not be what you want.

This recommendation applies only in the case of elements, not attributes. If you need to select all but a specific attribute, use local-name( ). The self axis, when applied to a name, refers only to elements. In other words, use <xsl:copy-of select=@*[local-name( ) != 'ignored-attribute']/> and not <xsl:copy-of select=@*[not(self::ignored-attribute)]/>.

Finally, just in case of confusion, selecting all but a single element is different from selecting all but a single instance of element. The latter is used in an example discussed earlier in this chapter:

<xsl:apply-templates select="*[generate-id(  ) != generate-id($node-to-ignore)]"/>

Jeni Tennison's book, XSLT and XPath on the Edge (M&T Books, 2001), details when and when not to use name( ) and local-name( ).