Character Map
If this is teaching you to suck eggs then please forgive me.
Both Windows and Apple have a little application to access all the characters that an individual font has available to it.
In Windows it is called "Character Map"and on the Mac "Keycaps". (If anyone needs basic advice on "Keycaps" then please let me know).
To access "Character Map" under Windows XP you can go Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > and then click on Character Map. Older versions of Windows also have it located in a similar place.
With Character Map open you can then select the typeface/font that you want to use from the pulldown menu - say Arial - and then scroll down through all the different characters to find the symbol you want (note the scroll bars on the rhs). On mine the Euro symbol is in the middle of the screen when the rhs scroll bar is about two thirds to three quarters of the way down.
Next Double-click the symbol(s) you want to use and they will appear in a "Characters to copy" line at either the top or the bottom of the window depending on your version of Windows. (If you single click the symbol it will enlarge and you will see the alt code at the bottom of the window). The next stage can be done in several ways but one way is to then press the "copy" button and to then return to the application that you are using ie Word and you can then single-click your mouse at the point you want your character(s) to appear and then use "paste" to get the characters to appear. (Paste as in ctrl + v or edit > paste).
The advantage of using Character Map or Keycaps is that you gain access to all the accents etc. that a font has, as well as such symbols as Trademark, Copyright and Registered, without needing to know the Alt Code for that character. Some programmes can access Character Map directly without using "Start" etc. but for others you have no choice but to use "Start".
Please be aware that some software applications can't access all the characters in a font so occasionally I end up pasting gobbledygook instead of the symbol that I have copied from Character Map.
If anyone else has better advice on using Character Map then please help me out.