Possible Solution
Swift provides distance() which measures the distance between start and end that can be used to create an NSRange:
let text = "Long paragraph saying something goes here!"
let textRange = text.startIndex..<text.endIndex
let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: text)
text.enumerateSubstringsInRange(textRange, options: NSStringEnumerationOptions.ByWords, { (substring, substringRange, enclosingRange, stop) -> () in
let start = distance(text.startIndex, substringRange.startIndex)
let length = distance(substringRange.startIndex, substringRange.endIndex)
let range = NSMakeRange(start, length)
// println("word: \(substring) - \(d1) to \(d2)")
if (substring == "saying") {
attributedString.addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: NSColor.redColor(), range: range)
}
})