Fixed-width tables

There are two basic techniques for making fixed-width tables in LaTeX: you can make the gaps between the columns stretch, or you can stretch particular cells in the table.

Basic LaTeX can make the gaps stretch: the tabular* environment takes an extra argument (before the clpr layout one) which takes a length specification: you can say things like "15cm" or "\columnwidth" here. You must also have an \extracolsep command in the clpr layout argument, inside an @ directive. So, for example, one might have

\begin{tabular*}{\columnwidth}{@{\extracolsep{\fill}}lllr}
The \extracolsep applies to all inter-column gaps to its right as well; if you don't want all gaps stretched, add \extracolsep{0pt} to cancel the original.

The tabularx package defines an extra clpr directive, X; X columns behave as p columns which expand to fill the space available. If there's more than one X column in a table, the spare space is distributed between them.

The ltxtable combines the features of the longtable and tabularx packages: it's important to read the documentation, since usage is distinctly odd.

ltxtable.sty
Distributed as part of macros/latex/contrib/supported/carlisle.tar.gz
tabularx.sty
Distributed as part of macros/latex/required/tools.tar.gz