I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but here is how I am doing text alignment on a per-character basis. I'm using this to apply different swish effects on different characters.

I first place into the scene the complete string that I am going to 'swish' (let's say 'test').
I then go back and place the individual letters into the scene (t,e,s,t).
Next, one by one, I match the individual letters up to the letter in the string.
After they are lined up, I delete the full string from the scene and I am left with the individual letters to apply effects on.
Hope this helps.