Setting to turn off automated lists

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1

Does anyone know how to turn off Figma’s auto-formatting? I’m trying to type '- ', but it looks like Figma is assuming this text must be a bulleted list.

I’m having a similar issue when using text that’s in the format of an email address or a url. Figma is changing these to unwanted links. I’d like to turn off all text auto-formatting.

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2

There is no option to do that so I changed your topic to a suggestion people can vote for.

The only way is to press Cmd/Ctrl + Z to undo the list creation once it is created automatically.

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A preference to disable this would be great. Perhaps a better feature would be the ability to choose which of the default characters will create a list (or set your own), so that you can either disable it entirely or just disable certain problematic character combinations.

A couple additional pain points this might solve:

  • Using any of the creation characters at the start of an already-converted list item will cause the character to disappear.
  • Using characters for the opposite list type automatically toggles the list type. (side note: there is some convenience to mixing lists on the fly, but maybe this is only necessary in nested lists, since you’d rarely mix lists on the same level)
  • Toggling a list style off removes any typed characters that were automatically converted to list markers. It feels like a bug that you’d lose content when toggling a style property, but I found it noted here too. Unless this changes, disabling some characters from creating lists would be a fine workaround that wouldn’t require you to quickly hit cmd+z before you get too far into typing.
  • This probably isn’t a widespread issue, but the auto-lists do make it somewhat frustrating to work with content that includes asterisks (footnotes/disclaimers) and with code snippets in languages that use the same syntax (YAML, Markdown, etc). Turning off those shared characters would solve this.
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As someone trying to create a numbered list in separate instances, this is a frustrating imposed styling choice and it would be great if it could be turned off. I’ll have to have “1.” for every list item since the list isn’t in the same text box. The numbered list also adds an unwanted margin to the left of the number.

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I have a numbered list that continues on the other side of an icon so it will need a separate text box. Please allow list editing capabilities

  1. input any start number
  2. adjust the amount of indent

OR

  1. allow indentation from line to line in a paragraph through use of space/tab to “fake” a numbered list as you can in word processing software.
1 Like
6

Hi - I have a work around for list items in separate boxes

Make one list.
Create a frame.
Copy and past framed list and adjust to fit the next menu item.
Not optimal but it does work for my purpose.

Would be nice not to have to go through the formatting headaches though.

Please consider updating this feature!

Thanks

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So annoying, It should turn off by default.

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seems like figma got so excited about the fact that they could, that they forgot to ask if they should.

this should be a user configurable setting.

i would think this should be off by default as has been said. at no time have i benefited from this feature and now it is actively impeding my work. granted i can work-around it by creating two distinct text boxes that appear as one, but i should not have to.

i also think this setting should be file specific, as it seems very likely that in one file a designer might want this (not me personally, but there must be people that like it), but in another file this might be unwanted behavior.

until the automatic lists can be styled to suit the project, i do not ever see this feature being of any value. figma is not a word-processor and the automatic list feature in ms word is problematic. i have seen myself and others fight with it so often to get it to do what we want it to, that it takes more time than just manually indenting and numbering or bulleting. and microsoft has been working on that for decades. that is why i use indesign or sublime text for any word-processing i need to do.

the auto list feature was an ill-conceived, poorly implemented waste of effort. should have spent the time on branching, auto-layout fragility, nested component controls, or any other of the so many feature requests on this forum.

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  1. Describe the problem your experiencing and how your idea helps solve this

I want to have text that starts with 1. but does NOT trigger the numbered list feature, right now I can’t simply toggle the numbered list formatting off. To work around I have to start with another number then go back and change it to 1.

  1. Add as much context as possible (screenshots, Figma files, mockups, etc.)

  2. Ask questions to bring the community into the conversation
    (e.g. Does anyone else experience this? Is anyone using a plugin or workaround to help solve this?, etc.

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10

I have the same problem. It shouldn’t create those lists automatically, only by choice.

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11

I totally agree, pressing Cmd/Ctrl + Z after every list item when you don’t need a list is super annoying. I want to disable this feature!

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Hey,

Whenever I try to make a listing starting with 1. in an auto layout and I try to make the first row of the table Figma turns it in to a bullet list automatically, however I don’t want to use it, because I want to use check box or any other object with it (and measuring it out would be a pain in the …), so I want to make individual rows with 1., 2. etc., those aren’t in a bullet list, because this way ruins the base line and slightly changes the numbers stlye. I tried to simply turn it off, but that way removes the number.

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Is there any solution for this? Turning off the automatic detection etc. or anything else.

Thanks for your help and advices!

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13

100% these should not be automatic.
If you try to turn OFF the bullets, it removes the number you typed.

My workaround has been:

Type the number and period, but don’t put a space before the copy. Type Any Letter directly after the period. Then type a space before your sentence. Then delete the extra letter at the beginning.

ie.
First: 1.A The big bad wolf.
Second: Delete the “A”.
Result: 1. The big bad wolf.

3 Likes
14

Using Cmd/Ctrl + Z immediately after a list shortcut removes the default styling.
https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040449773-Bulleted-and-numbered-lists#Format_list_items

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15

Thank you very much guys! I’ll try both of your solution. These kind of things slows down the workflow a bit and it annoys me. I hope Figma makes it optional soon.

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Was there any response to this? I need to type a - followed by a space and some text and every time Figma “helps” me by turning it into a bulleted list.
I do not want a bulleted list. I want to type “- or -”
Here’s the thing…there’s already a keyboard shortcut to create a bullet, and if Figma wants to turn that into a bulleted list - OK fine. But this isn’t a note-taking app.
The fact that I cannot figure out how to disable this poorly thought-out feature is mind-blowing. Like…pick up a gun and blow my own brains out.
C’mon guys…make this optional. It’s stupid to insist that anytime you type a dash or a number (or a bullet…which again…already exists if that what you want to create) that you are trying to created a bulleted list.

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For example:

  1. Item Name
    Item description

  2. Item Name
    Item description

  3. Item Name
    Item description

The first item will be formatted differently and fixing it causes extra work, please add an option to turn numbered formatting for any number, not just 1, or the option to disable auto-formatting.

It could be a cool feature, but currently, in most cases, it is just annoying!

18

If you:

  1. Type the numeral ‘1’.
  2. Then hit space and type a full stop/period.
  3. Then return the cursor to before the ‘.’.
  4. You can hit backspace to format things correctly.
  5. And then the indent is not applied.

And no, there was no need to use a numbered list to explain this.

1 Like
19

@ose.design Cool solution. Thanks.

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Appreciate you sharing a workaround. To be honest, this only further demonstrates the needless and annoying things that Figma users need to do to compensate for the absence of a very basic functionality.

Not trying to rip on Figma because I am a huge fan. But I feel features such as this are no brainers and really shouldn’t take so long to implement.

1 Like