How do I get a special character on a netbook without a number pad?

I'd like to be able to use a keyboard shortcut to type special characters (characters that can't be found on my keyboard) such as the £ (pound) symbol, which I can get on a keyboard with a number pad by typing Alt+0163. Unfortunately, on my netbook, I don't have a number pad.

How then do I get special characters, using the keyboard, without using charmap?

Often times, your netbook might have a function key which will change 7,8,9,U,I,O,J,K,L, and M into a number pad. You can use these to do Alt+ combinations. Alternatively, open the Character Map (Under Accessories in the start menu) to select individual characters.

I've been searching for weeks, and I finally figured out that I can enter the Unicode (not ASCII) code for a symbol, highlight it, and press Alt+X in Microsoft Word. To make it even faster, I created autocorrect entries to replace /b6 with ¶  and /a7 with §.

(I write for a judge, and I need to enter the above paragraph and section symbols 75 times each day. I run Windows 8 on a Lenovo Yoga 13 netbook (first computer without numpad), and I was lost without the Alt+numpad access to ASCII set until now!)

Reference: how do I insert ASCII characters without numeric key pad?

You can use some macro program like AutoHotkey to bind it to specified hotkeys.