How do you type the '§' symbol (section sign) in Minecraft?

I found that you can copy-paste the symbol into mc, it doesn't show up but then if you type a number or letter for your formatting (e.g. paste and then 1) the no./letter won't show up, and then anything you type after it will show up in the formatting.

Minecraft prevents typing "§" characters into in-game text fields. When pasting text, it will automatically be filtered out, in modern versions. This is likely to stop chat being spammed with formatted messages.

There are 4 ways you can bypass this restriction:

• Client-side modifications (remove text field restrictions).
• Server-side plugins and modifications (that, for example replace "&" with "§").
• Server console ("§" can be used in commands).
• External editors (for example, NBTExplorer).

On Windows 10, hold Alt and press 0167. If that doesn't work, try 21.

Minecraft stopped the Alt code insertion a long time ago. At one point they allowed insertion of Unicode characters in command blocks, but that too was removed. The only way now is via external editors, such as NBTExplorer.

Other than external editors or Bukkit plugins(Essentials v3 supports using & instead), I do not think there is any other way to insert section symbols.

It looks likes you have two options:

There is an ALT Code you can try to type. To try it:

• Hold down the ALT key on your keyboard
• Using the number pad (it must be the number pad), type 2, then 1 (21). Make sure Num Lock is on.
• Release ALT and it should type a §

On Mac, it looks like if you hold ALT and type 6, it will type the § sign (ALT and 5 for extended U.S. keyboards).

The other way is to use plugins that replace the § with something else. Looking around, it seems CommandBook for Bukkit may work.

Sources: Minecraft Wiki, Talk:Formatting codes