How does one create a controlled grid of text in MS Word without the grids printing?

Answer 1

If you hover your mouse over the top left corner of the table (aka the "grid") you will see a cross-arrow appear (looks like a lower case t made of arrows)
Right click on that and bring up borders and shading
in the borders and shading tab, choose borders none

It will show lightened in the Word window as you type but will not print the table cell borders.

Answer 2

Create a table the way you want and put your text there. You only need to paint the lines of your grid white, right? So they don't print in the paper - or shown in the screen for that respect. Now, just go to the main menu and navigate Table>Draw Table and choose as Border Color white. Draw all grid lines white and Bob's your uncle!