Avoid reformatting bullet lists with formatoptions+=a I am using Vim with `formatoptions +=a` as described in Vim: word wrap for documents to format lines automatically while I write documents, expecially Markdown documents. My problem is that Vim wants to reformat also bullet lists because there is blank line between each bullet point. What happes is that vim reformats This is wath we will do: * task 1, * task 2, * task 3. into This is wath we will do: * task 1, task 2, task 3. (I also do not understand why the asterisks disappear in this reformatting process.) How can I make Vim stop reformatting these lists?

Try this:

* add `n` to `formatoptions` so vim recognizes lists (`:set fo+=n`)
* set the `formatlistpat` option to recognize asterisk as bullets (`set flp+=\\\|^\\*\\s*`) (note that number of backslashes depends on your `magic`ness level).



It's not perfect based on my testing but it seems to be close.