makecell package vertical centering of vertical text

Question

I'm using makecell package to write vertical text to my table cells. It works fine, but I have trouble centering it. Normal vertical text (within a {tabular}) is displayed as:

    \rothead{Some lenghthy\\ sentence} 

Using

    \rothead[c]{Some lenghthy\\ sentence} 

does center it, but adds a @ to the end ??

I'm not good at tex macros, this is the definition:

% \begin{macro}{\rothead}
% The macro for rotated tabular column heads. If no \package{rotating} package
% loaded this macro works like |\thead|.
%    \begin{macrocode}
\newcommand\rothead{\@ifundefined{turn}%
  {\PackageWarning{makecell}{\string\rothead\space
    needs rotating package}%
   \let\tabg@pe\theadgape
   \def\t@bset{\cellset\theadfont\theadset}\thead@}%
  {\let\theadgape\rotheadgape
   \@ifnextchar[{\@rothead}{\@@rothead}}}
%    \end{macrocode}
% For rotated column head default column setting is similar to
% |p{\rotheadsize}| (plus some additional justification settings)
%    \begin{macrocode}
\@ifdefinable\@rothead{}
\def\@rothead[#1]#2{\thead{\\[-.65\normalbaselineskip]
  \turn{\cellrotangle}\thead[#1]{#2@{}}\endturn}}
\newcommand\@@rothead[1]{\thead{\\[-.65\normalbaselineskip]
  \turn{\cellrotangle}\thead[c{>{\rightskip0explus
    \rotheadsize\hyphenpenalty0\pretolerance-1%
    \noindent\hskip\z@}p{\rotheadsize}
    @{}}]{#1}\endturn}}
%    \end{macrocode}
% \end{macro}

Can anyone explain please? I'd really like to center my vertical column headers :(

Answer 1

This looks like a bug in the package, so you should contact the author about it. But as a temporary fix, it looks like you can just add the following to your preamble. (Lightly tested.)

\makeatletter
\def\@rothead[#1]#2{\thead{\\[-.65\normalbaselineskip]
  \turn{\cellrotangle}\thead[#1]{#2}\endturn}}
\makeatother

This removes the offending '@' and doesn't seem to have any other ill effects.