The Unintended Hyperlink
Google Docs is designed to anticipate your needs when writing for the web. Because of this, it includes an aggressive autocorrect feature specifically targeting URLs and email addresses. If you type a string of text that even loosely resembles a web domain (like `example.com` or `[email protected]`) and press the spacebar or the Enter key, Docs immediately assumes you want that text to be clickable. It instantly changes the text color to blue, underlines it, and converts it into a live hyperlink. If you are writing a technical manual, a programming script, or simply drafting text where a URL should remain strictly as plain text, this constant, automatic conversion is highly disruptive.
Disabling Automatic Link Creation
To keep your raw text formatting intact and stop Google Docs from automatically converting your typed text into clickable hyperlinks, you must disable the specific link substitution rule.
Open the Google Docs document you are currently working on. Navigate to the top menu bar and click on Tools. From the drop-down menu, select Preferences. In the preferences dialogue box, ensure you are on the General tab (the default tab on the left). Look through the list of checkboxes for the option labelled Automatically detect lists (or similar formatting rules), but specifically locate the checkbox labelled Automatically detect links. Click this checkbox to remove the checkmark. Click the blue OK button at the bottom right. From now on, any URL or email address you type will remain exactly as standard, unlinked text.