How to Use and Customize the Virtual Keyboard on Your Steam Deck

howtogeek.com:

Since it doesn’t feature a hardware keyboard, Steam Deck relies on an on-screen virtual keyboard. Learn how to use and customize the virtual keyboard on your Steam Deck below.

Using the on-screen keyboard on your Steam Deck is super easy. All you have to do is press one or a couple of buttons while in Game Mode and Desktop Mode. Once the keyboard’s up, you can type on it with the two trackpads, the touch screen, or with the controller.

In Game Mode, you can summon the Steam Deck on-screen keyboard by holding the Steam button and pressing the X button. Note that you cannot summon the keyboard with the Steam button + X combo everywhere in Game Mode.

For example, you can’t call the keyboard when on Home Screen or inside the “Settings” menu. On the other hand, you can summon the keyboard in-game anytime you like. Pressing the A button while having a text box selected —like, for instance, when you select the “Search” tab located on the Home Screen, as shown in the screenshot below— activates the keyboard as well.

To summon the Steam Deck keyboard in Desktop Mode, press the X button on your Steam Deck while in Desktop Mode. Pressing the X button to summon the on-screen keyboard works virtually anywhere in Desktop Mode, as long as you have Steam running because Steam’s needed for the custom Desktop Mode button mappings to work.

Some of the keyboard hotkeys include pressing Y for space, X for backspace, R2 for Enter, etc. You can see the rest of the hotkeys on the screenshot below.

Don’t forget that you can freely type on a physical keyboard like you’d on a regular PC if you’ve a physical keyboard, or a keyboard and mouse, connected to your Steam Deck.

To customize your Steam Deck virtual keyboard, press the Steam button and select the