Text editing in AC9 is completely overhauled, one of the few features that is.
Different.
The changes to the text tool are too great for me to cover here. Generally, it is more like editing in Word. All of the typical variations in text are available, and the shortcuts for bold (Cmd+B), etc., work as they should. You can mix any text effects within a single text element. Cmd+A works to select all the text when editing a block. Text can be stretched and expanded. Text can be copied and pasted from Word, with complex formatting preserved.
Text blocks can also have an outline box, and a background color, and you can control the offset of the text to the block edge.
It's a lot of stuff. If they had styles they would be done.
You should look over the section in the manual about the new Text, which starts on page 306, and/or the section in the New Features Guide, page 74.