Vertically center text in tabularx

Question

There are already many answers to this question, but no one seems to have the solution for my case. My table looks, written with the following code, like this:

\documentclass[a4paper,9pt]{extarticle}
\usepackage[a4paper,left=2.4cm,right=1.4cm,top=1.4cm,bottom=1.4cm,footskip=0cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{xcolor}
  \definecolor{row_even}{cmyk}{0, 0, 0, 0.12} % define color
  \definecolor{row_uneven}{cmyk}{0, 0, 0, 0.24} % define color
\usepackage{helvet} % Helvetica font
  \renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}
\usepackage{fancyhdr} % page numbering
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt} % remove top line
\usepackage{colortbl}
\usepackage{float} % define table lines
  \makeatletter
  \newcommand{\thickhline}{\noalign {\hrule height 2pt}}
  \newcolumntype{'}{!{\color{white}\vrule width 2pt}}
  \newcolumntype{+}{!{\vrule width 0.2em}}
  \makeatother
\usepackage{tabularx}
  \newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{\hsize=#1\hsize\raggedright\arraybackslash}X}%
  \newcolumntype{R}[1]{>{\hsize=#1\hsize\raggedleft\arraybackslash}X}%
  \newcolumntype{C}[2]{>{\hsize=#1\hsize\columncolor{#2}\centering\arraybackslash}X}
  \newcolumntype{S}{>{\hsize=0pt}X}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{ctable} % different line thickness
\usepackage{multirow} % cell over multiple rows in table

\begin{document}
\renewcommand{\tabularxcolumn}[1]{>{\arraybackslash}m{#1}}
\begin{center}
\rowcolors{1}{row_uneven}{row_even}
  \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{ + L{0.7} ' C{0.15}{row_uneven} ' C{0.15}{row_uneven} + }
  \specialrule{.05em}{1em}{0em} 
  Swahili & yes & no \\[0.3cm]
  Swedish &  &  \\[0.3cm]
  Dutch &  &  \\[0.3cm]
  English &  &  \\[0.3cm]
  German  &  &  \\[0.3cm]
  \specialrule{.2em}{.0em}{.0em}
  \multicolumn{3}{+ l +}{\textbf{further languages:}} \\[0.8cm]
  \specialrule{.2em}{.0em}{.0em}
  \end{tabularx}
\end{center}
\end{document}

You can see how the first two columns are vertically centred, but not the third one. Also the text within \multicolumn command isn't centred. I know that I could tackle to problem with the 3rd column by just using a 4th column with zero width. But I have tried that unsuccessfully because the rows are coloured. Could I maybe define my own column type, so that I have to use \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{ + X ' X ' X + }? But how would I do that?

Answer 1

This is a bug if m column type is used in the last column. A workaround will be to use another dummy column as the last column like

@{\kern-\tabcolsep}L{0}@{\kern2\tabcolsep} +

in

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{ + L{0.7} ' C{0.15}{row_uneven} ' C{0.15}
                        {row_uneven}@{\kern-\tabcolsep}L{0}@{\kern2\tabcolsep} + }

You have to add an extra & in all the rows.

\documentclass[a4paper,9pt]{extarticle}
\usepackage[a4paper,left=2.4cm,right=1.4cm,top=1.4cm,bottom=1.4cm,footskip=0cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{xcolor}
  \definecolor{row_even}{cmyk}{0, 0, 0, 0.12} % define color
  \definecolor{row_uneven}{cmyk}{0, 0, 0, 0.24} % define color
\usepackage{helvet} % Helvetica font
  \renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}
\usepackage{fancyhdr} % page numbering
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt} % remove top line
\usepackage{colortbl}
\usepackage{float} % define table lines
  \makeatletter
  \newcommand{\thickhline}{\noalign {\hrule height 2pt}}
  \newcolumntype{'}{!{\color{white}\vrule width 2pt}}
  \newcolumntype{+}{!{\vrule width 0.2em}}
  \makeatother
\usepackage{tabularx}
  \newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{\hsize=#1\hsize\raggedright\arraybackslash}X}%
  \newcolumntype{R}[1]{>{\hsize=#1\hsize\raggedleft\arraybackslash}X}%
  \newcolumntype{C}[2]{>{\hsize=#1\hsize\columncolor{#2}\centering\arraybackslash}X}
  \newcolumntype{S}{>{\hsize=0pt}X}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{ctable} % different line thickness
\usepackage{multirow} % cell over multiple rows in table

\begin{document}
\renewcommand{\tabularxcolumn}[1]{>{\arraybackslash}m{#1}}
\begin{center}
\rowcolors{1}{row_uneven}{row_even}
  \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{ + L{0.7} ' C{0.15}{row_uneven} ' C{0.15}{row_uneven}@{\kern-\tabcolsep}L{0}@{\kern2\tabcolsep} + }
  \specialrule{.05em}{1em}{0em}
  Swahili & yes & no &  \\[0.3cm]
  Swedish &  & & \\[0.3cm]
  Dutch &  & & \\[0.3cm]
  English &  & & \\[0.3cm]
  German  &  & & \\[0.3cm]
  \specialrule{.2em}{.0em}{.0em}
  \multicolumn{4}{+ l +}{\textbf{further languages:}} \\[0.8cm]
  \specialrule{.2em}{.0em}{.0em}
  \end{tabularx}
\end{center}
\end{document}