<span></span> <!-- I want this even if content empty -->
<span/> <!-- stop doing this! ->

XslCompiledTransform proc = new XslCompiledTransform();
proc.Load("sheet.xsl");

using (XmlWriter xw = XmlWriter.Create("result.html", proc.OutputSettings))
{
  proc.Transform("input.xml", null, xw);
}

<xsl:if test="count(jar/beans) > 0">
   <xsl:apply-templates select="jar/beans"/>
</xsl:if>

<div class="clearBoth"><xsl:text> </xsl:text></div>