Version used: Autodesk Maya 2008
Platform: Windows 7

I am going to start off with a new, empty scene. You can add text to your scene at anytime, but for this tutorial I am going to start fresh!
To create some simple text, Click down the Create menu:


Do not just go ahead and click text. That would be all too simple. What we need to do is click the button for text options:


You should now be looking at the Text Curves Options window. Maya is the default text with Times New Roman as the default font. Feel free to change either now.


To select a new font, click and hold the black arrow pointing down next to the font name:


Once you have your font selected and your text decided upon, we can now start to decide on settings. The default settings will create a curve based on the text and font. We can extrude this if we want, or do what I’m going to do and select Bevel:


You can and should try messing around with the setting until you get what you are looking for. I wanted block letters with right angles all around so I set the bevel width and depth to 0.
Now you can press apply or create to send the text to the scene. Once there you can manipulate it however you want.