How do I turn off the automatic list feature in org-mode?

Question

I want to write a list like

1. bla
2. blabla
2.1 blabla

But having written 1., org-mode tries to infer what I want on the next line, which makes the numbering impossible to edit. How do I turn off this feature?

Answer 1

I'm not sure I completely understand what you're trying to do. Here's your list:

1. item one
2. item two
2.1 subitem one

That's not how org-mode plain lists work. Each plain bullet can take an unordered character (*, +, or -), and ordered characters can be numbers (or single letters if org-list-allow-alphabetical is set to t), and the ordered characters end with either a . or a ) (but you can set org-plain-list-ordered-item-terminator to allow only . or ) if you like).

So, instead of what you've got, the list should look like the following, with subitem one demoted a level:

1. item one
2. item two
   1. subitem one

You can choose what form the demoted bullet takes by customizing org-list-demote-modify-bullet. Let's say you want ordered (numbered) lists to start with 1. and then demote to 1) and then demote again to 1.:

1. item one
   1) subitem one
      1. subsubitem one
2. item two

To achieve this, you could use the following:

(setq org-list-demote-modify-bullet '(("-"  . "+")
                                      ("+"  . "*")
                                      ("*"  . "-")
                                      ("1."  . "1)")
                                      ("1)"  . "1.")))

Again, if you plan to use text such as "2.1" within your bullet and don't want it to mess up your numbering, you can:

(setq org-plain-list-ordered-item-terminator ?\))

This will mean org will only allow order list bullets ending with parentheses, and will not recognize "2.", "2.1", etc., as bullets.