I almost never found out how to type in special characters on my laptop, so
I'll pass this along in case others are having the same problem. At least,
this is the way it works on my Dell laptop.

1. Press and release the NumLock key to turn NumLock on
2. Hold down the Fn+Alt keys
3. Type in the numeric code using the letter keys with the small numbers
(on my PC, these are blue numbers on the m,j,k,l,u,i,o,7,8 and 9 keys)
4. Release the Fn+Alt keys
5. To resume normal typing, press and release NumLock to turn it off

Whew!
James