The Automated Grids
Google Docs is designed to be a “smart” word processor, constantly attempting to guess your formatting intentions based on the characters you type. One of the ways it does this is through Markdown-style syntax recognition. For example, if you want to create a table quickly, you can type a plus sign (+), a few dashes (-), another plus sign, more dashes, and a final plus sign (e.g., +---+---+). When you press the Enter key, Docs will instantly delete your text characters and render a fully formatted, two-column HTML table in its place.
While this is an incredibly fast way to build a grid if you are an experienced power user, it is incredibly frustrating if you are simply trying to draw an ASCII diagram, type a complex mathematical formula, or document a specific code syntax. Having your careful arrangement of pluses and dashes suddenly transform into a massive white table forces you to constantly hit the Undo button to retrieve your original text. If you prefer manual formatting control, you should disable this specific automation.
How to Stop Automatic Table Generation
You can turn off the Markdown table substitution within the Preferences menu.
- Open a document in Google Docs.
- Look at the top toolbar and click on Tools.
- Select Preferences from the dropdown menu.
- In the Preferences window, ensure you are on the General tab.
- Look down the list of checkboxes for the Markdown recognition options.
- Locate the checkbox labelled Automatically detect Markdown (or specifically “Detect Markdown for tables” if separated in your version).
- Click the checkbox to remove the checkmark.
- Click the blue OK button to save your changes.
From now on, typing strings of pluses and hyphens will result in exactly what you typed: plain text characters. If you actually want to insert a table, you will need to do so manually by navigating to Insert > Table in the top menu bar.