Illustrator is good for creating text that is short in length (such as figure labels), but it is not recommended for writing paragraphs. It is easier to create paragraph text in a word processing program and then import it into Illustrator. (See 5. Importing Text)
To create text:
Select the Text tool and click on the page where you wish to have the text. Type away. To format the text see 6. Formatting text.
