WIDTH<"nn%"> does not seem to work (3982 has the bug as an enhancement request):

I created a table using the Open Office Writer. 
I saved the document. 
Then saved the document under another name 
I opened the 2nd document with notepad then swapped all fixed column widths 
(<COL WIDTH=size> and <TD WIDTH=size>) with percentages. 
When opening the document using IE and MSWord the column widths are correct, 
but when opening with Open Office Writer the column widths are not correct. 

I can send attachments as soon as I figure out how.
Thanks, Tracey 

BTW, I copied the following from the W3C website under 4.01 specifications 
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#h-11.2.4.4 

Calculating the width of columns 
Authors may specify column widths in three ways: 

Fixed 
A fixed width specification is given in pixels (e.g., width="30"). A fixed-
width specification enables incremental rendering. 

Percentage 
A percentage specification (e.g., width="20%") is based on the percentage of 
the horizontal space available to the table (between the current left and right 
margins, including floats). Note that this space does not depend on the table 
itself, and thus percentage specifications enable incremental rendering. 

Proportional 
Proportional specifications (e.g., width="3*") refer to portions of the 
horizontal space required by a table. If the table width is given a fixed value 
via the width attribute of the TABLE element, user agents may render the table 
incrementally even with proportional columns: