Simple poly text and extrusion

I love using Maya for everything except Text. I started learning 3d with Caligari's truespace and maybe I'm just a moron and haven't found out how to do it but, Maya can't touch it when it comes to quickly making simple extruded text!
Its just a matter of clicking the text tool button, typing the word, and finally click extrude.
Why can't Maya do it just as simple?

bevelPlus