> I am creating a printed form using LaTeX.

You're keen, but if it's for automated batch processing of data which
comes from some source, choices are limited.

> I am trying to use various tabular styles to lay out the form.
> 
> My success in getting the various tabular styles to do what I want could be 
> generously be described as mixed.

Syntax, nesting, spacing, ... not too bad though. The degree of
difficulty depends on what you want to achieve, how much this differs
from defaults, and how well your thinking is aligned with the TeX way of
doing things.

> Anyone on the list have any recommendations for a tabular style that is easy 
> to use and fully featured?

Bad news I'm afraid: the tabular environment is your best answer for
aligning text portions (Jason, array only differs from tabular in that
its cells are set in maths mode). If it spans more than one page, load a
package from the tools bundle which modifies tabular to be breakable
(and puts some extensions in as well).

It depends on what you want to do as well. Are you trying to create a
fill-in form with boxes for people to hand-write into? Been there, done
that, took a long time and wants some understanding from the TeXBook [1]
about how TeX assembles vertical material. I don't remember any packages
specifically for this, but search the TUG package catalogue.

I've done a lot of style programming in LaTeX, and there isn't a single
or simple answer to your problem, esp as you were so far vague about it.
I can do the job for/with you but would be asking for an hourly rate.

HTH,

Volker

[1] There is deliberately zero overlap between the TeXBook (Knuth) and
the LaTeX Manual (Lamport), each describing different parts of the whole
system. See the LaTeX Companion (Mittelbach et al) for a description of
many 3rdparty packages, or search the package catalogue.

-- 
Volker Kuhlmann                 is list0570 with the domain in header
http://volker.dnsalias.net/     Please do not CC list postings to me.

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