shouldn't something published to grid2 (with grid1 empty) shift 25% to the right?

It should collapse to fill the space if the grid1 module isn't displaying via module manager

Is that case?

Might a spacer be an option?

1) is the grid collapsing? yes, unfortunately. I was hoping that a grid2 would be pinned to the second column [edit:] since grid1 is on (but empty).

2) 'a' spacer might not be enough (I might need two or three in some rows), and sill a spacer actually fill a zg-col-3?

An option, I suppose, is to load some bloatstrap (edit: though publishing the requisite number of grid modules with _& nbsp;_ as content, and a suffix I can shut off in custom css would have less loadweight).

The spacer position is just like a normal position and can be dragged and dropped as needed and sized as required in the layout

The t3 templates did have this ability regarding occupying space even with no module being published

not sure if that is what you may be thinking of

not what I was thinking of, but it was what I was expecting.

ah ok sorry about that but this what has happened with all the zgf versions other than T3 as far as I'm aware

Cheers
Paul

We're good. Now I know how to proceed, ergo, I'm planting the flag of victory and moving on.

Nice one

Cheers
Paul