The Unwanted Formatting
Google Docs is equipped with a robust auto-formatting engine designed to speed up document creation. One of its most aggressive features is the automatic detection of lists. By default, if you type an asterisk (*) followed by a space at the beginning of a new line, Google Docs instantly assumes you want to create an unordered bulleted list. It will automatically convert your asterisk into a graphical bullet point and indent your text. While helpful for rapid note-taking, this is incredibly frustrating if you are trying to write code snippets, mathematical equations, or simply use asterisks as stylistic separators in your text.
Disabling List Detection
You can turn off this specific auto-formatting trigger within the Google Docs preferences menu, forcing the editor to treat asterisks strictly as standard text characters without attempting to reorganize your paragraph structure.
Open the Google Doc you are working on. Navigate to the top menu bar and click on Tools, then scroll down and select Preferences from the dropdown menu. A dialogue box will appear containing two tabs. Ensure you are on the General tab. Look down the list of formatting options until you find the checkbox labelled Automatically detect lists. Uncheck this box to disable the feature. Click the blue OK button to save your changes. From now on, you can type asterisks, hyphens, or numbers followed by periods at the beginning of a line, and Google Docs will leave your formatting exactly as you typed it.