Text alignment/Layout

I keep asking myself why Flash is so simple when it comes to text layout and finally today I was thinking that that really can’t be, considering Flash is meant to layout text in web sites.

In my text field, I am looking to create a half return, so if I want space between two paragraphs, I don’t have to use an empty return each time. Kind of like p padding in css.

I also want to create a tab order in my text field, for better alignment of information. I am looking to create the look of two columns, where I have a date with a paragraph associated with it, with the paragraph being more then one line of the date, but staying indented.

Lastly, and I am assuming this is a given, I would like the text to come from a xml or html file.

Could anyone point me to a tutorial on this or some resources? That would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot!!!