Backport rev. 3ae74b361f53 to 2.7 branch.
diff --git a/Doc/library/codecs.rst b/Doc/library/codecs.rst
index 62bb504..ce850f6 100644
--- a/Doc/library/codecs.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/codecs.rst
@@ -320,6 +320,8 @@
 providing the *errors* string argument.  The following string values are defined
 and implemented by all standard Python codecs:
 
+.. tabularcolumns:: |l|L|
+
 +-------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
 | Value                   | Meaning                                       |
 +=========================+===============================================+
@@ -887,6 +889,8 @@
 
 * an IBM PC code page, which is ASCII compatible
 
+.. tabularcolumns:: |l|p{0.3\linewidth}|p{0.3\linewidth}|
+
 +-----------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+
 | Codec           | Aliases                        | Languages                      |
 +=================+================================+================================+
@@ -1103,6 +1107,8 @@
 byte string. The result of the "decoding" direction is listed as operand type in
 the table.
 
+.. tabularcolumns:: |l|p{0.3\linewidth}|l|p{0.3\linewidth}|
+
 +--------------------+---------------------------+----------------+---------------------------+
 | Codec              | Aliases                   | Operand type   | Purpose                   |
 +====================+===========================+================+===========================+