LaTeX Fixed Width Tabular Columns

[jwt@example.com (Jim Tittsler)]

Since this has become the Tokyo LaTeX Users Group list lately,
I'll risk the following question:

I'm having trouble with the new (95.02) tabular and array package.

I'm trying to use fixed width columns using the new m{width}
option.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work well with
\multicolumn entries.  This is especially true if a table's
rows happen to *all* be \multicolumn entries spanning the row
(in which case the width seems to be ignored), but I also
have ragged right edges to some ruled tables that consist of
a mixture of fixed width columns and \multicolumn entries.

Any hints?  Better packages to consider?

Thanks, Jim  jwt@example.com