How to turn off auto formatting

Do you mean in Word®?

Microsoft Word 2007 and later

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Click on the File tab.
3. Click on the Options link in the left navigation pane.
4. In the Word Options window, click on Proofing in the left navigation pane.
5. Click on the AutoCorrect Options button.
6. In the AutoCorrect window, click on the AutoFormat tab.

In this section, users will be able to enable/disable each of the AutoFormat features they do not want to use.

Used to be under Preferences, Auto-correction, Auto Detect Lists, also look in Pages > Preferences > Auto Correction section  in the preferences. go up to pages, right next to file, click preferences, its the third tab over called auto correction, there should be a list you can turn on and off what you want.

FWIW, there is no "auto formatting" in Pages. There are Templates you can use if they suit your purpose and can be modified. Or you can start with a blank page and set it up the way you want.

Well, in Pages>preferences>Auto-Correction>Formatting, what all is checked?

Tell us what you want to end up with? What will you be doing with the document when your are done. Maybe you do not want any formatting. You would use another editor. I use bbedit or the earlier TextWrangler. Give us an example. Pages and their ilk are designed to make a document look nice.

https://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/download.html

Robert

It would help us to help you if you told us what app you are in when you experience this.