How do I lay down text with NO fill in the middle? I tried selecting the red line option in the TExt Panel, but it still laid down the color that was previously used 
It will always fill in the text. However if you don’t need the text to be particularly dynamic, you can try the following.
Create your text. Select it and hit CTRL+B to break it apart. (in MX you have to break it apart twice not once)
Once you have the text as basic fills, you can use the ink bottle to create strokes around each letter. Then just select the fill part of each and delete it. You’ll be left with just the stroke outlines of the text.
Oh how cool 
i’ll try that. Thank you 