How to Stop Google Docs from Automatically Converting Ordinals

The Ordinal Auto-Formatting

Google Docs contains a suite of auto-formatting rules designed to make text look more professional without manual intervention. One of the most common automatic substitutions involves “ordinals”—numbers indicating position, such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. By default, when you type a number followed by its ordinal suffix and press the spacebar, Google Docs automatically converts the suffix into superscript text, making the letters tiny and raising them slightly above the baseline of the number (e.g., converting “1st” to “1^st“).

While this superscript formatting looks elegant in formal letters or essays, it can be highly undesirable in other contexts. If you are writing technical documentation, legal contracts where exact plaintext is required, or data entry logs where the raised letters disrupt the line height and make the document look messy, this auto-formatting is incredibly frustrating. If you want your ordinals to remain exactly as you typed them (the same size and on the same baseline as the rest of the text), you must disable this specific substitution rule.

How to Stop Ordinal Superscripting

You can turn off this specific text conversion via 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 General.
5. Look through the list of checkboxes for the option labelled Use smart quotes (note: the ordinals setting is usually placed right below or near this).
6. Locate the specific checkbox labelled Automatically use superscript for ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd) or Use smart ordinals.
7. Click the checkbox to remove the checkmark.
8. Click the blue OK button to save your changes.

From now on, when you type 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, Google Docs will leave the text alone, maintaining a uniform text size and baseline across your entire document.