Floating Objects in Word 2000 Table Cells are Vertically Aligned Wrongly

Whenever I insert a graphical object (picture, drawing object, etc.) into a Word 2000 table cell I lose the vertical formatting. The text is always aligned at the top of the cell, instead of being centered or at the bottom of the cell. Why, and what can I do about it?

Meister, Cindy. Word MVP Site, The (2002). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word