The Unwanted Emphasis
Google Docs attempts to enforce consistent styling through its “Normal Text,” “Heading,” and “Title” format categories. Sometimes, when you copy and paste text from an external source (like a webpage or a PDF), or when you accidentally trigger a keyboard shortcut, the styling of your document becomes corrupted. You might find that every time you hit Enter to start a new paragraph, Google Docs automatically changes the font size from your standard 11pt to a massive 16pt, assuming you want the new line to be a header. This forces you to manually select the text and shrink it back down every single time you type.
Resetting the Normal Text Standard
To restore order to your document and stop Google Docs from automatically changing the font size on new lines, you must redefine what the system considers to be “Normal text.”
First, type a completely normal sentence in your document. Manually highlight that specific sentence. Use the toolbar at the top to set the font exactly how you want it for your standard body paragraphs (e.g., Arial, 11pt, black text, no bold). With that perfectly formatted text still highlighted, look at the toolbar and click the dropdown menu that currently says “Normal text” or “Heading” (the Styles menu). In the dropdown, hover over Normal text. A secondary flyout menu will appear to the right. Click exactly on Update ‘Normal text’ to match. You have now explicitly told Google Docs that this is the definitive baseline style. The next time you hit Enter, the system will reliably continue using that exact font size and style.