Non-keyboard characters in Pidgin IM and Windows 9x

This page neatly describes what to do to write non-keyboard characters in Pidgin.

Keep in mind that because the latest major version of Gtk+ for Windows 9x is 2.6, the new input method introduced in Gtk+ 2.10.0 won't work. (Users of Windows 2000 and newer are spared of this).

In Windows 9x, you have to hold down the Ctrl+Shift keys and type a hexadecimal Unicode number for the character.

While the Character Map in Windows 2000 and newer supports showing Unicode character numbers, Windows 9x versions don't.

One workaround is to use the Windows Calculator to get the hex value of a typable character. Open it, select set the calculator view to scientific, type the given Alt+xXXX value and then click on the Hex radio button. This will convert the decimal value to hexadecimal. 0176 or just 176 yields a degree ° sign, the hexadecimal value for this is B0.

Keyboard shortcuts for Dec/Hex conversion in Calculator:
F5 for Hexadecimal (Hex) and F6 for Decimal (Dec).