The Ordinal Auto-Correction
When typing dates or ranking numbers in Google Docs, you frequently use ordinal indicators—like “1st,” “2nd,” “3rd,” or “4th.” By default, Google Docs attempts to make your writing look more formally typeset by automatically formatting those ordinal letters into tiny superscript characters, pushing them to the top of the text line. While this looks elegant in a formal invitation or a published book, it is highly undesirable in legal documents, standard business emails, or specific style guides (like some academic formats) that mandate flat, standard baseline text for all numbers and letters. The constant automatic shifting of your text baseline can make the document look inconsistent if you try to undo it manually.
Disabling the Superscript Substitution
To stop Google Docs from automatically formatting your ordinal numbers into superscript text, you need to turn off the specific preference that governs this auto-correction.
Open a document in Google Docs. Navigate to the top menu bar and click on Tools. From the drop-down menu, select Preferences. A dialog box will appear on your screen. At the top of this dialog box, click on the General tab (it is usually the default active tab). Look down the list of checkbox options until you locate the one labeled Automatically format ordinal numbers (st, nd, rd, th) as superscripts. By default, this box is checked. Uncheck the box. Click the blue OK button at the bottom to save your changes. From now on, when you type “1st” or “2nd” and press the spacebar, Google Docs will leave the text exactly as you typed it, keeping the letters on the same standard baseline as the numbers.