Can Google Stop Being So Helpful? Yes!

 Google often seems to know what you’re going to say before you do. However, you’ve probably experienced Google making intuitive leaps that prove unhelpful. It might predict incorrectly what you were going to type next, convert a name to an email address, turn text into a symbol, or start assigning tasks to you. The good news that if this helpfulness becomes unhelpful, you often can turn off Google’s more intuitive features. 

Here’s how to do this in Google Docs: 

Open a new or existing Google Doc. In the menu bar select Tools and then Preferences. 

By default, all of your General checkboxes are probably checked. Uncheck what is bothering you and select OK. 

You can then toggle to Substitutions to turn off specific character combinations that Google has been helpfully turning into symbols. 

Note that although the Preferences Tool is opened via a single Doc, it creates a global change for Google Docs. However, if you have multiple open docs in your browser, you may need to close and reopen them to see it take effect. You can also revisit these settings as often as you need, as Google's help may be appreciated in one doc and not another.