There are some situations where you can’t avoid special characters, though. For example, if a password was assigned by a sys admin and you are unable to change it.

If you do need to use a password manager, I recommend keepass, which works well on both Mac and PC.

I think it’s a lot more work to describe than it is to actually do. I mean, you’ve got [site code] xxx + [personal code] 1111, mixed as you like and you’re done, unless you want to add [date code] yy. I use the same system for clients, but instead of a site code they have [client code] xxx. But, I won’t try to steal your customers. It’s really, really hard, people.

I worked as a freelance designer for 10+ years before founding Passpack. I had over 300 password because I managed them not only for myself, but for all of my clients as well (FTP, domain registrar, smtp server, CMS control panel, etc). And, of course, I needed o be able to access both from my home office, my laptop and sometimes from a client’s machine directly.

So, everyone has different needs.