XSL for SharePoint List webparts

For out-of-the-box SharePoint List webparts, the 'XSL Link' property allows editors to customize the display of their list data.

Below is an example of an xsl stylesheet for list webparts.

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"
  exclude-result-prefixes="msxsl"
  xmlns:ddwrt2="urn:frontpage:internal">
<xsl:output method="html" indent="yes"/>

<xsl:template match="dsQueryResponse" xmlns:ddwrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v2/DataView/runtime">
  <div class="resourcesList" >
      <xsl:apply-templates select="/dsQueryResponse/Rows/Row"/>
  </div> 
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="Row">
    <xsl:if test="position()=1">
    <h2><xsl:value-of select="@Category" disable-output-escaping="yes" /></h2>
    </xsl:if>
    <a href="{substring-before(substring-after(@URL,'&gt;'),'&lt;')}">
     <xsl:value-of select="@Title" disable-output-escaping="yes" />
    </a> <br/>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Using XSLT gives a much cleaner and customized look to your list webparts.