<command name="paraToFormalpara">
  <macro>
    <sequence>
      <command name="selectNode" 
               parameter="ancestorOrSelf[implicitElement] para" />
      <command name="toFormalpara" />
      <command name="paste" parameter="to %_" />
    </sequence>
  </macro>
</command>

<command name="toFormalpara">
  <process showProgress="false">
    <copyDocument selection="true" to="in.xml" />
    <transform stylesheet="toFormalpara.xsl" cacheStylesheet="true"
               file="in.xml" to="out.xml" />
    <read file="out.xml" encoding="UTF-8" />
  </process>
</command>

In the above example, toFormalpara.xsl is simply:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:output method="xml" encoding="UTF-8" />

<xsl:template match="/para">
  <formalpara>
    <xsl:for-each select="@*">
      <xsl:copy/>
    </xsl:for-each>

    <title></title>
    <para>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
    </para>
  </formalpara>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="@*|node()">
  <xsl:copy>
    <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
  </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

<xsl:template match="/*[./processing-instruction('select-child-nodes')]">
  <xsl:variable name="pi"
    select="./processing-instruction('select-child-nodes')" />
  <xsl:variable name="first" select="substring-before($pi, '-')" />
  <xsl:variable name="last" select="substring-after($pi, '-')" />

  <c:clipboard 
    xmlns:c="http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/namespace/clipboard">

    <xsl:for-each select="child::node()[position() &gt;= $first and
                                        position() &lt;= $last]">
      <xsl:apply-templates select="." />
    </xsl:for-each>

  </c:clipboard>
</xsl:template>