Font request for new versions of the OS

I'm not sure if anybody out there would like this, but when i go to choose a font for a project out of the hundreds, most of which i have no idea what they look like, i'm forced to (within a program like illustrator) choose the font and test it out before determining if it's what i want. i was wondering if there is any way to have that particular font show up in the font pull down when you go to choose one, so instead of it just saying the name of the font, it also shows you what that font looks like by using it to spell out the name. this way i could quickly pass over those i do not want and go right to the one i need without wasting time trying others out.