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The snail (@) is an essential symbol for typing email addresses: here’s how to do it on PCs, Macs, and foreign keyboards.
How to make a snail on a PC keyboard? Many users are still asking themselves this question today. In fact, this special symbol is essential for anyone who wants to send an email, enter their email address to register on a website, or even create a secure, hard-to-guess password. When we search for information about this symbol, or when we give someone our email address, we pronounce the @ symbol by saying “snail”. In English, however, this symbol is called “at”. The meaning is related to its function in electronic mail, that is, writing to someone who is at a specific address (e-mail). In Italian, the name comes from its unique shape that resembles a snail.
However, when we look at the keyboard, it is not easy to immediately notice the snail: it is on the same key as ò, between the L and ŕ keys. So how do you make a snail on a pc? You need a key combination, but don’t worry: you only need two. In this article, we will explain step by step how to make a snail on PC, on Mac and also with virtual computer keyboard.
How to make a snail on PC
To type a snail on the PC keyboard, just hold down the AltGr key (the one on the right) and press the snail key. This way the @ symbol will appear in your text immediately. These two keys are very close to each other: if you press AltGr with your thumb, you can comfortably reach the cochlea with your index finger.
How to make a snail on Mac
As we’ve seen, this is a very simple and memorable key combination, but the fun doesn’t stop there: making a snail on your Mac is even easier. In this case, you can press both Alt keys, i.e. the one to the right of the space (as in a Windows computer) and the one to the left (which is not possible in another operating system) + the key with the snail symbol.
How to make a snail on foreign keyboards
So far we have seen how to make a snail on a computer when the keyboard is set to Italian: in most cases, in fact, your computer’s default setting (if purchased in Italy) is just that. However, if you ordered your computer online from a European country or your keyboard is set to English, you may have difficulty locating the snail and typing it with the key combination you learned earlier.
In an English keyboard, you need to hold down the Shift key (up arrow) + the number two. Only then will you be able to enter the snail. If you look at your physical English keyboard, you’ll notice that the @ symbol is right above the 2 key.
Finally, although this is quite a long method compared to the ones mentioned so far, it is good to know that a snail can also be inserted indirectly into the text. As? By manually inserting a symbol. If you’re working in a text editor like Word, for example, you can go to Insert> Insert Symbols and search for @.
Now that you have learned how to make a snail on your computer keyboard, you are ready to email your friends and family with a few simple clicks.
