If you hold down the alt key and enter a 3 digit number not starting with zero (0) on the keypad most programs will interpret this using the code page 437 encoding. If you hold down the alt key and enter a 4 digit number programs will generally interpret the charachter using the more modern code page 1252. Just in case you wanted more information then you needed on character mapings. (We're Engineers, of course we want more information then we need!) I sometime open an office document and click Insert --> symbol and look for the symbol I want and then look at the alt code to enter which will usually work everywhere. Here are some of my faves:
Alt 0176 °
Alt 0177 ±
Alt 0186 · <-- Middle dot, but I'd like to find a bigger one so it shows up better.
-Kirby
Kirby Wilkerson
Remember, first define the problem, then solve it.