Different Font Locations?

I have right at 500 fonts that I use for graphic design with programs like Illustrator and PhotoShop.

But with these loaded onto my computer, the start up time for Microsoft Word is horribly slow while it 'optimizes font menu performance.'

Is there any way to create different folders so that Illustrator goes to one place for fonts, and Word goes to another, keeping the number of fonts in Word to a minimum?

Thanks

Welcome to Mac-forums, bencharity.

What you need is a font manager: you can disable all the fonts except those you need for one project at a time. There are a few out there like Suitcase which costs a lot of $$$ but there is also Linotype's FontExplorer X (I use it). There are others as well.

You just create font sets that you use for one project then, when you're done with the project, you disable the fonts you don't need anymore and you create others as you need them.

Remember that the less fonts are activated at the same time, the faster your Mac will be. It's a bit of a pain at first to go and activate fonts and deactivate them as you open or close projects but you get used to it and it's a sacrifice anyone is willing to do to keep enjoying using their computer.