The Blue Web
Google Docs assumes that any text resembling a web address should act as one. If you type “www.example.com” or “[email protected]” and press the spacebar or the Enter key, Docs will instantly and automatically convert that plain text into a clickable, bright blue, underlined hyperlink. While convenient for drafting emails or digital memos, this automatic formatting is completely unacceptable if you are writing a formal academic paper (which dictates strict citation formatting without blue text), a printed newsletter, or a technical manual where URLs should be treated as plain, unformatted text strings.
Removing the Hyperlinks
To keep your text formatting uniform and stop Google Docs from automatically underlining and converting URLs into active links, you must disable the automatic link detection in the preferences menu.
Open your Google Doc. Navigate to the top menu bar and click on Tools. From the drop-down list, select Preferences. A new dialogue box will appear with two tabs at the top. Ensure you are on the General tab. Look for the checkbox explicitly labelled Automatically detect links. Uncheck this box to disable the feature. Click the blue OK button. From this point forward, when you type a web address, it will remain as standard, black, un-underlined text. If you have already typed links that are currently underlined, you must highlight them, right-click the highlighted text, and select “Remove link” to revert them to normal text.