Because Word mostly works with proportional fonts -- where letters have
different widths -- there is no fixed number of characters per line.
Instead, Word works with the page margins and the paragraph indents to
determine the width of the text area, and whatever you type goes onto the
line until it fills up. Depending on the specific characters you type, the
font, the font size and spacing, etc., that could be a different number of
characters on each line of the entire document.
If you set the font to a nonproportional font -- the most common are Courier
New, Lucida Sans Typewriter, and Lucida Console -- then you'll know that
each line has the same maximum number of characters. That number will depend
only on the width of the text column and the size of the font. For example,
10 pt Courier New with the default character spacing sets 12 characters per
inch, so a 6-inch text column contains 72 characters (or less if the line
word-wraps before it reaches the margin).
The document grid is available only for East Asian text; ignore the mention
in the Help.
--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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