u/ze_or

1.75x Sensitivity with -40% on vertical, Orientation set to Local Yaw.

I would also like to use this space to talk about the issues with Steam Virtual Keyboard. If anyone has means to share this to and Valve Employee, please do as these issues has been around since the steam deck 4 years ago.

I was actually trying to get 70wpm on 60s without skipping errors before this, but I got so fed up with some of the behavior of the virtual keyboard that I ended up giving up to go for a 15 second score.

Button Bindings

On the original 2015 steam controller and the older big picture mode pre steam deck, space was on right bumper and backspace was on left bumper when you were on the virtual keyboard. And more importantly it was configurable just like how the Desktop Layout is.

For some reason, steam removed the ability to rebind these functions since the new on screen keyboard. Making the problem worse, the default bindings are terrible for trackpad users.

Here are the current bindings as far as I know:

Button	Function
View/Menu	None/Move Keyboard
L1/R1	Switching between tabs in emoji menu, selecting conversion on certain languages(SteamOS exclusive)
L2/R2	Shift/Enter, or alternatives to trackpad click when finger is on corresponding trackpad
L3/R3	Caps/None
L4/R4	Close Keyboard/Space
L5/R5	None/None
Dpad/Left Stick	Move Key Selection
A/B/X/Y	Select Key/Close Keyboard/Backspace/Space
Right Stick	None
Left Trackpad/Right Trackpad	Select keys on respective halves, with click as confirm.

Left Trigger - Shift being bound on triggers means that if you use triggers to click, you get no option to hold shift down while using the trackpad to type. Technically you could release left trackpad, start hold left trigger, and then use left trackpad click to select the key, but this is so convoluted that I think most would end up just pressing the shift key on the OSK.

Right Trigger - Whenever you press right trigger to select a key, and you happen to accidentally have your right thumb off the trackpad, it sends enter. This is such a detrimental typo, especially when it causes you to send a message prematurely.

Additional Note on Triggers - Using triggers to click would be improved if you'd let us configure the sensitivity of it. How it is currently feels way to unresponsive to me, and I would prefer it if it had hair trigger.

Back Buttons - When I first tried this on the Steam Deck, I noticed how space moved to R4 from right bumper first. And I though L4 would be backspace because left bumper was backspace in the past. But somehow, it's close keyboard. I thought maybe they just bound the face buttons to the back buttons, but L5/R5 are unbound.
I'm still unsure if this was a genuine mistake that was actually suppose to be backspace, or some valve employee seriously thought putting a function like close keyboard on the back grip button was a good idea. Whichever it is, close keyboard has no business being on the back.

Backspace - This leads to my biggest issue, the lack of a dedicated backspace button for trackpad users. Both the backspace on the OSK, and X button requires you to move your right thumb far away from any other key on the trackpad. It slows down typing so so much and it's absolutely infuriating knowing it used to just be on the left bumper, and some how CLOSE KEYBOARD took priority over BACKSPACE. What the hell valve.

Unused Binds - View/L5/R5/Right Stick, even bumpers are practically useless for many users. There are so much unused potential here. If we could bind modifiers like ctrl or alt for example, we'd get access to so many more utility out of this keyboard, giving us access to many more shortcuts without having to bind each one in the desktop layout. The unused right stick could be bound to arrows for easier navigation, as the built in arrow keys are terrible. Maybe we could even have a radial menu for function row keys? Possibly less reasonable as I don't think steam input can display virtual menus on desktop. Regardless it's clear that if we get back the ability to rebind, not only it would fix the horribly designed existing binds, it would open up so much more possibility for the function of the controller.

The Keyboard Layout

The new keyboard layout is definitely more approachable to casual users. But for trackpad use the keys has gotten smaller, and the left and right halves are split at an awkward spot, and I believe an alternative option would be beneficial.

The QWERTY layout is very left hand heavy, so on touchscreen keyboards, it's often more efficient to cross over your right finger to the left side of the keyboard. On a phone for example, where I type over 120 wpm, I would type "after" with right hand finger for f and t. Comparatively on the Steam Virtual Keyboard, the right trackpad can barely reach up to the G key. The left trackpad in comparison can reach to the UJN keys. Being able to press UJN on left hand is much less useful than being able to press TFV on the right hand. Changing trackpad sensitivity does not change how far you can reach either, you just get more dead zone.

I believe the keyboard would be better for touchpad usage if the layout was made smaller, kind of like this windows onscreen keyboard. The cross over area can be placed much better, and the keys will be bigger making it easier to hit. Of course this will require the need of another layer for numbers and symbols, but this should be less of a concern if you'd just take use of the currently unused buttons on the controller to switch layers.

Other Questionable Behaviors

Edge Dead Zone - There is this sliver of dead zone around the full perimeter of the keyboard. I cannot count the number of times I missed the backspace due to this. And I don't understand the benefit of this dead zone being here at all. If my finger is on the edge of the trackpad, I want to press the key that is on the edge. The issue is exaggerated when you change the trackpad sensitivity to be higher in settings.

Lack of Hold to Repeat on Dpad/LS - This isn't even an issue for trackpad typing, but the Dpad and Left Stick doesn't have hold to repeat. If you want to move your selection across the keyboard, you have to spam for every movement. Another behavior that would be fixed if you could just let us rebind everything like we used to be able to.

2015 Steam Controller - The OG steam controller users are having it even worse right now. You can barely reach 7 on the trackpad, and ` is impossible to reach. Yes you literally can't press ` or ~ with the trackpad with the original steam controller without changing trackpad sensitivity. In addition, the back paddles aren't even bound to space or close keyboard or anything. They are just completely useless. The space and backspace were unbound from the bumpers like previously mentioned, so OG steam controller users doesn't even have an additional binding for space to assist their trackpad typing.

Footnote
Yes I know a bunch of these might feel like a weird thing to nitpick about for some of you, considering most people will only ever use this keyboard on a pinch. I am definitely an obsessive typist that notices these things far more than any casual users. That being said I believe many of these changes, especially being able to configure the button bindings, will benefit nearly everyone.