diff --git a/tei2eoatex.xsl b/tei2eoatex.xsl
index a71c31e..5f78a9f 100644
--- a/tei2eoatex.xsl
+++ b/tei2eoatex.xsl
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@
   <xsl:key name="de" match="translations/entry" use="@de"/>
   <xsl:key name="fr" match="translations/entry" use="@fr"/>
   <xsl:key name="it" match="translations/entry" use="@it"/>
-
   <xsl:preserve-space elements="tei:*"/>
+  <xsl:strip-space  elements="tei:*"/>
 
   <xsl:output method="text" encoding="UTF-8" use-character-maps="texreplacements"/>
   <xsl:character-map name="texreplacements">
@@ -40,8 +40,6 @@ contexts, a double replacement is performed.
     <xsl:output-character character="&#x2E0F;" string="&amp;"/>
   </xsl:character-map>
 
-  <xsl:strip-space  elements="*"/>
-
   <xsl:template match="*">
     <!--
         catchall template