How to Stop Google Docs from Automatically Formatting Dashes

The Unwanted Typography

Google Docs features an aggressive auto-formatting engine designed to make your documents look professionally typeset. One of its most common interventions involves dashes. If you type two standard hyphens in a row (“–“) followed by a word and a space, Docs will automatically merge those two hyphens into a single, longer “em dash” (“—”).

While an em dash is the correct typographical mark for a break in thought, this automatic conversion is often entirely unwanted. If you are writing technical documentation, drafting code snippets, or creating simple ASCII diagrams, you need two hyphens to remain exactly as two hyphens. Having Docs constantly convert your syntax into specialized typographical characters forces you to constantly hit Undo. If you require precise control over the characters you type, you must disable this substitution.

How to Stop Automatic Dash Conversion

You can turn off the double-hyphen substitution within the Preferences menu.

1. Open a document in Google Docs.
2. Look at the top toolbar and click on Tools.
3. Select Preferences from the dropdown menu.
4. In the Preferences window, look at the top tabs and click on Substitutions.
5. You will see a list of specific character replacements.
6. Scroll through the list until you find the rule where two hyphens (–) are replaced by an em dash (—).
7. Click the checkbox next to this rule to remove the checkmark.
8. Click the blue OK button to save your changes.

From now on, when you type two hyphens, they will remain as two distinct hyphens on the page. If you ever genuinely need an em dash, you can insert one manually via the Insert > Special characters menu, or by using your operating system’s keyboard shortcuts.