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Harmful auto-format feature: Firefox hijacks typing to force weird numbered lists in WhatsApp & AI chats

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Dmitriy V. Shnitko
Dmitriy V. Shnitko

Hello,

I am dealing with a quite frustrating issue, and I literally cannot do anything to stop it from ruining my messages.

Whenever I manually type in WhatsApp Web or AI chats (like ChatGPT or Claude), Firefox completely hijacks my text box. As soon as I start a line by typing "1", a period, and a single space ("1. "), the browser forces my text into an auto-formatted numbered list.

This isn't just unhelpful; I see it as a genuinely harmful feature. The formatting it forces on me is weird and broken—it frequently adds massive, irrelevant paragraph gaps between list items, completely messing everything up.

I am completely stuck because standard fixes do not work:

If I press Ctrl + Z to undo the auto-formatting, it also deletes the space I typed.

I am not pasting anything; this happens the millisecond I type the spacebar from scratch.

It feels awful to have my manual typing hijacked like this. Users should be able to type a simple number and a period without the browser transforming it into a broken HTML list.

Is there an about:config setting or any way to completely disable this auto-formatting feature so I can just type normally again?

Thank you.

Hello, I am dealing with a quite frustrating issue, and I literally cannot do anything to stop it from ruining my messages. Whenever I manually type in WhatsApp Web or AI chats (like ChatGPT or Claude), Firefox completely hijacks my text box. As soon as I start a line by typing "1", a period, and a single space ("1. "), the browser forces my text into an auto-formatted numbered list. This isn't just unhelpful; I see it as a genuinely harmful feature. The formatting it forces on me is weird and broken—it frequently adds massive, irrelevant paragraph gaps between list items, completely messing everything up. I am completely stuck because standard fixes do not work: If I press Ctrl + Z to undo the auto-formatting, it also deletes the space I typed. I am not pasting anything; this happens the millisecond I type the spacebar from scratch. It feels awful to have my manual typing hijacked like this. Users should be able to type a simple number and a period without the browser transforming it into a broken HTML list. Is there an about:config setting or any way to completely disable this auto-formatting feature so I can just type normally again? Thank you.

All Replies (1)

TechHorse
TechHorse
  • Top 25 Contributor

Dmitriy, this doesn't sound like a Firefox issue as such? It sounds as though the site itself is applying markdown formatting to the text entered into the edit box?

For example, on this forum iff I enter four dashes at the start of a line and press enter then I get a separator, like so:

however, other sites do not convert dashes in this way.

But irrespective of whatever is responsible for the conversions, if Firefox has a way to override any such autoformatting and /or force plaintext in website edit boxes, then unfortunately I do not know what that is.

You can wait to see if anyone else here knows, or consult the site's help pages to check if it is possible to stop any such autoformatting.

Modified by TechHorse

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