What should I do when there is a special character like a degree symbol or language-specific character?

Problem

There is a symbol or other language-specific character in text of a label. Such as °, ±, ≥, ♂, ♀, ⅛ ¼ ⅓ ⅜ ½ ⅝ ⅔ ¾ ⅞, Ä, ä, Á, á, å, Å, ð, ë, ğ, Ñ, ñ, õ, Ö, ö, Ó, ó, Ü, ü, Ž, or ž.

Our Solution

Copy and paste that symbol from an online source (or this blog post) or from a word processor (e.g., Pages, Word) on your computer. There are some keyboard shortcuts for entering common symbols (the plus signs mean you should hold down the keys together):
Windows

• ° = Alt+248
• ñ = Alt+0241
• ± = Alt+0177
• é = Alt+130
  

Mac

• ° = Shift+Options+8
• ñ = Options+n, then hit n again
• ± = Options+Shift+=
• é = Options+e, then hit e again