The Frustrating Formatting
Google Docs is designed to anticipate your formatting needs. One of the most prominent examples is its automatic list detection. If you type an asterisk (*) followed by a space, or a number one (1.) followed by a space, Docs instantly assumes you want to start a bulleted or numbered list. It will automatically indent the text, insert the bullet icon, and alter the margin spacing. While this is great for rapid outlining, it is incredibly annoying if you are writing technical documentation, scripting code snippets, or formatting a unique document layout where you specifically do not want the text forced into a standardized list structure.
Disabling Automatic List Detection
To stop Google Docs from automatically indenting and formatting your text into lists, you need to turn off the smart list detection within the editor’s preference menu.
Open any Google Doc. Navigate to the top menu bar and click on Tools. From the drop-down menu, select Preferences. A dialog box will appear with two tabs; ensure you are on the General tab. Look down the list of options for the checkbox labeled Automatically detect lists. By default, this is checked. Click the checkbox to remove the checkmark. Click OK at the bottom of the dialog box to save your changes. From now on, when you type an asterisk or a number followed by a period, Google Docs will treat them as standard literal text characters. Your text will remain exactly where you typed it, flush with the left margin, giving you complete manual control over your document’s layout.