Moving words or text in Animate

I'm trying to animate some text in Animate. I'd like to have the words and letters move, like cartoon characters. I know how to animate or move objects in Animate, but how do you first create symbols or objects that are words or letters? Or do I first need to create the words and letters in Illustrator or Photoshop, for example, and then import them into the Animate Library as objects to be animated? Thanks in advance.