It might be noted that the simplest way in Word to "shortcut" non-keyboard characters that you use often enough to justify it is to think up a "misspelling" and put it in "Autocorrect."

You might enter something like "Replace ^W with Ŵ" etc., and when you type ^W you'll get Ŵ (if you have "autocorrect as you type" turned on).

You can also do it by creating explicit "keyboard shortcuts," but the autocorrect method is quicker to set up, and in the event that you might want to write ^W an immediate Ctl-Z, before typing anything more, will cancel the autocorrection and leave it as what you typed.

I haven't looked at the "free Wordish" programs enough to know whether they include autocorrection, but would expect them to.

John