Text Editor

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Text editor

Edit small text files such as TXT, CFG, INI, JSON, YAML, TOML, XML, Markdown, CSV, subtitles, source code and scripts directly in Gaming Mode. The editor works with local files and direct SMB shares. It edits text lines without automatically formatting or rewriting the document structure.

Extensionless names such as README, LICENSE, Makefile and Dockerfile, plus common dot configuration files, are recognized too. For another text extension, choose Options → Edit file. Recognition does not execute scripts or render HTML. The editor still checks the contents and refuses binary data.

Edit text above the keyboard

1. Focus a text file and press A, or choose Options → Edit file.
2. Move up or down to the line you want. Left and right move the cursor.
3. Press A to edit the document with Steam's on-screen keyboard.
4. Hide the keyboard to return to the editor's cursor and selection controls.
5. Press Y or choose Save file to write the file.

SteamOS PC	SteamOS handheld

The whole editor panel shrinks above Steam's keyboard, keeping the toolbar, active line, nearby text and status visible. The text scrolls as the cursor moves. There is no separate line-editing popup. You can edit and paste multiple lines.

On handhelds, L3 hides the toolbar to show more lines, even while the keyboard is open. Press L3 again to show it; R3 reveals and focuses it. For smaller controls in the same window, change Interface scale in Settings and reopen the editor. See the handheld guide and scaling examples.

SteamOS PC	SteamOS handheld

Select, copy and paste

With the keyboard hidden, hold RT / R2 and move the D-pad or stick to extend the selection. You can select part of a line or continue across several lines. Release the trigger to keep the selection, then press View / Select or choose Copy text. If nothing is selected, Copy text copies the current line.

SteamOS PC	SteamOS handheld

Move to the destination, press A and use Paste on Steam's keyboard. Pasting replaces selected text or inserts at the cursor. FileExplorer uses the system clipboard; it has no separate clipboard or second Paste implementation. With a physical keyboard, standard text selection and Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V work inside the text input, and Ctrl+Z invokes the editor's Undo.

While Steam's keyboard is open, its own controller mappings apply: RT / R2 is Enter. Hide it before using RT with directions to select text in FileExplorer.

Editor controls

Press R3 (click the right stick) to move from the text to the top toolbar. Use left/right to reach Edit text, Insert line, Delete line, Copy text, Undo, Save file or Close, then press A. R3 again, or Down, returns to your cursor and selection. If Steam's keyboard is open, R3 hides it and focuses the toolbar. Moving Up from the first line also reaches the toolbar.

Control	Action
Directions	Move the cursor; Up at the first line reaches the toolbar
R3 / right-stick click	Switch between text and toolbar; hide the keyboard when entering the toolbar
L3 / left-stick click	Hide or show the toolbar, including while the keyboard is open
A / Edit text	Open Steam's keyboard at the cursor
RT / R2 + directions	Extend a text selection with the keyboard hidden
View / Select / Copy text	Copy the selection, or the current line
X / Insert line	Insert a line below it, with the same indentation
Y / Save file	Save the pending changes
Delete line	Remove the selected line
Menu / Start / Undo	Undo a recent edit; up to 30 in-memory changes are retained
B / Close	Leave the editor; choose to keep a draft, discard changes or continue editing

Typing or hiding the keyboard does not save the file. The header shows Unsaved changes until you save. Each keyboard editing session is one Undo step; line insertion and deletion have their own steps. Saving clears Undo history. Steam's glyphs follow the active controller; the names above use Xbox-style labels.

Recovery drafts

FileExplorer saves a private recovery draft after 0.4 seconds without typing, and every 1.5 seconds during continuous typing. Draft saved confirms that the backend wrote it to disk. A draft may contain unfinished or invalid JSON; the original file is changed only by Save file / Y, with the normal checks.

After a crash, empty battery or normal close with Keep draft and close, reopen the same file. Choose Restore draft to recover its text and cursor, Discard draft to remove it, or Close editor to leave it for later. On a normal close, Discard changes removes the draft; Continue editing returns to the editor. Successful Save removes the recovery draft too.

SteamOS PC	SteamOS handheld

Drafts retain the original revision, so restoring a draft cannot silently overwrite a file changed by another program. Copy any edits you want to keep, then reopen the current file and apply them there. The source file must still be available; reconnect a drive or SMB share before opening its editor.

Drafts are local files restricted to the Steam user, even when editing SMB text. They contain the edited text and are not encrypted. The latest typing may be lost if power disappears before a draft is acknowledged; storage damage can also prevent recovery. Undo history remains in memory and is not restored.

What happens to formatting

Spaces, tabs, blank lines, existing line endings, the final newline, original encoding and byte-order mark are retained. Mixed LF, CRLF and CR endings are tracked; inserted lines use the file's prevailing line-ending style. Your intentional text changes, line insertions and deletions still take effect.

JSON receives a syntax check before saving. An invalid JSON save is refused and the reported line is brought into view. Other formats keep their text layout, but have no format-specific syntax validator. Preserving layout does not check whether an edited CFG, XML or script is valid for the program that reads it.

Encodings and limits

UTF-8 and BOM-marked UTF-16 are detected automatically. If decoding fails, select the file's original encoding from the offered choices: UTF-8, UTF-16 LE/BE, CP1250, CP1252 or Latin-1. Characters that cannot be represented in the original encoding are refused instead of being silently replaced.

The editor accepts regular text files up to 512 KiB and 10,000 lines. Binary files, symbolic links and UTF-32 are not supported. Files inside archives must be extracted first.

If the file changed outside FileExplorer after opening it, saving is refused. Keep a note of the edits you need, reopen the current file and apply them there. For interrupted SMB saves, inspect any backup path named in the error before retrying. See How it works.