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I have the following understanding for table saws:
What do you use for a square piece of plywood then (alternating grains, and length / width is identical) - use a rip fence or miter-gauge?
You can use whichever one is more practical for the size of your workpiece and your saw setup, but in general a miter gauge is not as well-suited to working with square stock. The miter gauge's capacity is limited unless you have an auxiliary infeed table, since it falls out of the track once it extends too far past the front of the table. Also, the bulk of a square piece's material is only supported at the outer end of the miter gauge's fence (if you have one). Using a basic miter gauge with no attached fence to cut a square piece of material will be awkward at best, and probably dangerous.
If you're talking square sheets, you're probably not looking at anything larger than 5'x5' (e.g., Baltic birch plywood). On the table saw, it will be easiest to cut this with an appropriately-sized sled or the fence. For small parts, you should use a sled.
The simple answer is that it depends on the size and shape of the piece you are cutting. For large pieces of plywood the fence is the right answer; for smaller pieces the miter gauge -- or a tablesaw sled -- could be the better choice. Whichever makes handling the workpiece easier and safer.
