With some playing around, I think I'm headed in the right direction, thanks to some cumulative thoughts and ideas from previous posters!!
This is working quite well, so far: var str:String = myRTA.text; var pattern:RegExp = /\b\w+/gi; var results:Array = str.match(pattern); myDGrid.dataProvider = results; I output this to a DataGrid to see what I'm getting. I'll have to do some additional playing, but I don't think that words like appl<b>cation</b> will pose a problem. Even if I loose that bolding, I'm not concerned, since in my app, that would be an inadvertant mistake.
