Important shortcuts, together with a approach to view the entire shortcut checklist

Valve’s Steam Deck is a powerful piece of gaming tech, however there’s undoubtedly a studying curve.

Even for those who’re conversant in the Steam retailer, and its TV-friendly “Massive Image Mode” that the Deck’s SteamOS resembles, it nonetheless takes time to determine how primary options from Steam on PC translate to the transportable machine’s gamepad-style controls. It is simpler than you may suppose at first, although.

Valve would not make it obvious up entrance, however Steam Deck customers have a ton of button-based shortcuts they will lean on for assist. All of these shortcuts contain holding the “Steam” button in tandem with one of many different buttons to supply totally different results. Like I mentioned, straightforward stuff.

Crucial one to know simply entails the Steam button. In the event you press and maintain it at nearly any time, a complete checklist of all of the obtainable shortcuts pops up till you launch the button. So for these occasions once you neglect — like I’ve quite a few occasions — you’ll be able to refresh your reminiscence painlessly, with out having to show to an web search engine.

By way of what I’ve used most, the Take Screenshot shortcut (Steam + R1) captures no matter is in your display screen and masses it into an on-device library. If you wish to then make your screenshots accessible on a pc (or another machine the place you’ve gotten Steam put in), you’ll be able to simply ship them to the cloud. Head to the Steam Deck’s Media menu, spotlight the screenshot you need to add, press the Choices button, and choose Add. That is it!

The digital keyboard shortcut can be extraordinarily helpful for the numerous Steam Deck-supported video games that require occasional typing. Simply press Steam + X to summon a smartphone-style keyboard in a flash.

There’s one catch, nonetheless. The digital keyboard solely works when Steam is definitely working. In the usual SteamOS mode, which means you’ll be able to name up the keyboard from nearly anyplace. However the function is extra restricted for those who’re utilizing the Home windows-style “Desktop Mode.” It nonetheless works in apps like Chrome, however you will must have the desktop model of Steam working within the background (there’s an icon for it on the desktop). You most likely will not use the function too usually in desktop, however it’s helpful for these occasions once you need to set up non-Steam apps like Discord.

You may as well tweak the display screen brightness straight away — which may help protect battery life — by holding that Steam button and tilting the left thumbstick up or down to extend or lower brightness, respectively.

The final large one to recollect: Steam + B (lengthy press), which is the Steam Deck equal of Pressure Stop on Mac and Alt + F4 on Home windows. Video games mess up occasionally, and Steam Deck will not at all times be capable of repair it for you. It is simple sufficient to reboot by urgent and holding the Energy button, however the Steam + B “Pressure Sport Shutdown” command offers you an alternative choice. I’ve used it loads.

Take the time to dig by way of the menus for those who’ve been fortunate sufficient to attain a Steam Deck. There’s plenty of not-so-visible options which are straightforward to overlook for those who’re not in search of them.