So I tried this code as a test:

2.  $(document).ready(function () {
3.             $("#ArticleToHighlightRFS").find("*").each(function (i) {
4.                 alert (this.id); 
5.             });
6.         })

The idea is that 'find()' would get all descendant nodes that are not text nodes, and would list their ids.  If they don't have ids, I suppose the alert box would show 'undefined'.  

The above works, but I have to be able to also:

1) note if the element is self-ending, like the linebreak (br) tag.  In that case, setting an ID might be a syntax error.

2)  set an id if the id is 'undefined'

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.