CompuServe Messages

Hi all, I'm doing a 2D anim. in 3DSr2. Basically it's flying text/logo stuff. There's three lines of text. The client needs the first 2 lines to be the same color(White). The problem is when one White object passes in front of the other, it's difficult to see who's in front (even though each object has a Z-offset). My question; is there a way in 3DS to edge 2D text objects, like a video character generator. For those non-vidiots, I'm looking to put a black outline around the front face of each letter in the text. I thought about duplicating the objects in place and giving the new one a wireframe texture. Is there a better way? All suggestions appreciated.