Keystroke or Character mapping ie Typing special characters ith windows

Sometime we need to use a special character like maybe a copyright symbol  ©  or say ° so how do I do that.  With Windows it's very easy . Every PC has something called Character Mapping. It can be found easily in system tools. For me I go to All programs - accessories - system tool and character mapping which tells me what I have to type to get the symbol on any program . I can also easily copy the symbol and paste it in any program. For eg  © is with number pad or numlock on and holding onto alt  typing 0169.
But in laptops there is a slight problem - you have to use function and then choose numlock and then the numbers are not directly o to 9 n the top but you will see numbers on some of the letters like in mine if I look closely I will see the number 1 (inside a box) on the top of the letter J and 2 on top of K etc. So typing this will get me the © and typing alt 0176 will give me the °. You can also  as I said copy from the map and paste.

For the Mac users I am not sure as I am a PC user but according to the web you have a similar program called character Palette  which can be found by clicking the apple in the top left corner and going to system preferences and searching for Character Palette. You will of course have to check this out.
Hope this helps when you need to add special symbols in programs other than word. For in word or some editing problem you can directly choose edit  - special character and then add that.