Since I have been migrated to Office 365 version 2002 (build 12527.21104), I have this new option in the Paragraph properties dialog :
Snap to grid when document grid is defined
It seems to be checked by default, however paragraphs don't seem to align with the grid at all, no matter if the gridlines are showing or not. Carriage returns do just as they always did, in creating spaces between paragraphs, without any visible connection to the grid at all.
So what does this new checkbox do, exactly? In what context can it be used ?
Until now I've been using the grid to draw diagrams inside a "drawing canvas" type object.
Searching on SU and Google didn't bring anything related to that new checkbox. It doesn't seem to be documented even on Microsoft's own web documentation.
2 Answers
The purpose is to help in aligning objects such as pictures, charts, or shapes. They can also help in aligning paragraphs.
A grid is defined by selecting an object and using the ribbon commandFormat > Align > Grid Settings.
It can also be defined for the entire document by the ribbon commandLayout > Align > Grid Settings.
The option of "Snap to grid when document grid is defined" can be found for objects in the above first dialog, or for a paragraph in its Properties dialog.
References:
- Snap charts, pictures, and objects to a grid to align them in Word
- Adjust indents and spacing in Word
There are potentially two different grids in a Word document - one is the "Drawing Grid", and the other is the "Document Grid".
AFAIK the "Document Grid" is only normally available if you have a CJK language installed as a Proofing language in Office, in which case you see a number of additional options and dialogs in various parts of the Ribbon. With such a language installed, when you go to the Page Setup dialog (e.g. Layout tab->Page Setup group, click the Dialog Launcher icon at the bottom right to get you to the Page Setup dialog box) then you should see a Document Grid tab, which you don't see otherwise. AFAIK you also do not get to see the Snap to grid when document grid is defined checkbox in either the Font dialog or the Paragraph dialog if a CJK language is not defined.
The Document Grid is really about how CJK characters are aligned on the page, and whether you want the rows and columns to be aligned to the grid, rather than using whatever spacing is defined in the font. However, because checking the option you mention in the paragraph grid also changes the way shapes are aligned, the behaviour can be quite confusing (I do not actually read or write any of the CJK languages and I hope that someone who uses these features regularly can provide a better Answer to your question). It doesn't help that when you click the Help icon (?) to get help on these features in an English-language environment, the Help doesn't even mention these settings!
The behaviour affects CJK text more obviously, but also has some impact on text in other scripts. For example, if you type a paragraph of either CJK or Latin text with the checkbox unchecked and "Single" spacing defined, Word will use the Line spacing defined in the font. If you check the box, it changes the vertical spacing so that there is one row of text for each row in the grid (this also depends on the settings in the Document Grid).
For a chunk of CJK text, the horizontal alignment is more obviously changed depending on whether you check the equivalent box in the font dialog box. For example, if you don't check the box, Word will use the spacing defined by the font. Space characters will be quite thin, as they are in Latin script text. But when you do check the box and a suitable Document Grid is defined, Word puts each CJK character in a different grid cell, and a space character expands to occupy a whole grid cell. Latin script text is not treated this way, but it is possible that the behaviour of tab characters changes so that default tabs are always to the next horizontal cell. (Not sure about that).
