Some progress has been made in handling of Unicode characters in newer versions of Windows (and Office) since this thead was current; but whether or not someone reading your cute stuff will see what you meant does still depend on the reader having an appropriate font installed on their computer, use of an appropriate encoding in their browser, and in some cases may depend on whether their computer/OS is a 32-bit or 64-bit setup.

It is still advisable to USE EXTENDED CHARACTERS WITH CAUTION, since those who read them may not see what you think you sent.

It may be of interest to Microsoft Word users to know that sometime after Win95 the "quick key" Ctl-X appeared, allowing you to type the Unicode HEX number for a character, and with the cursor immediately on the right of the last number Ctl-X will "flip" it to the glyph (character picture) your computer uses. This is a "toggle" so you can repeat Ctl-X to flip back and forth between image and number at will.

(If you encounter a character in html that doesn't display, you usually can copy the unkown thing and paste it in Word, then use Ctl-X to flip it to the Hex number and look up what it was meant to be in the Unicode standard - if it matters.)

For some uses, once the HEX code is flipped to the character glyph in Word, you can copy it from Word and paste it here and get a correct display. It's not guaranteed that this will always work, so preview before you submit, and code the char if it doesn't.

For the "neutral stop" proposed by the original post, I might suggest HEX CHAR 2601. (Code it ☁). The character has another use, but as my computer renders it, it looks to me a little like a pile of "bunny pills" - a cutesy cowflop?. (The Microsoft "cow splat" would be appropriate but it's © and you'd have to use an image to display it.)

☁ for those whose browser displays it

For the most recent note, Unicode says the interrobang can be coded:

‼ = ‼
‽ = ‽
⁇ = ⁇
⁈ = ⁈
⁉ = ⁉

John