Hi, I haven't used my Mac for ages, but for most apps, choose Edit > Special Characters. I think you can assign keyboard shortcuts to the ones you want.
I don't use many special characters but I guess it depends which program you are using.
If you are in the finder look under the edit drop down menu for special characters (last item there).
In TextEdit this menu is in the same location and there is a short cut, a hot key combination, to bring this up.
You can store your most frequently used ones, out of the gazillion available, into your personal list so they are easier/faster to find.
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
I guess I finally have the cut-and-paste down pat.