Can character tracking based on centers, rather than edges?

Question

I would like to space characters in a line of text evenly, based on their centers, such that the letters in two rows of text would be horizonatally aligned, regardless of the letters used.  I know I could convert to outlines, and then space objects evenly, but I would like to avoid that if possible. 

Answer 1

Thanks, tonyharmer and Mike.  Yes it is a small amount of text - the 26 letters of the alphabet, however it's more complicated that what I described in my first post.  I'm creating a simple cipher tool that will consist of two concentric circles of paper, one slightly larger than the other, with the letters of the alphabet printed on the outer edge of each.  Lining up different letters from the inside and outside circles creates the code. 
To acheive this, I created the circles, used type on a path to enter the letters and set the justification to full.  I can get the starting and ending letters to line up perfectly, but they get off due in the middle due to the varying widths of letters.
Can tabs be positioned relative to each other, such that I would be able to spread out 25 of them across a line, even if the line length changes?  I guess what I need is tabs positioned by degrees of a circle, (probably not a feature in high demand.)
If I converted the text to outline, could I evenly distribute the letters around the circle?