Document Information Panel (ala the Ribbon) uses the default view list of a lookup column to determine how many items to show in a dropdown list

The Issue

This was an interesting discovery today. A customer had a document library, complete with columns that they wanted to have appear in the Document Information Panel (DIP, ala the Ribbon). I guess for the most part, I’ve never had more than 100 items in a column, so I never noticed, but it would display 100 items. He actually had 730 items (it was a lookup against a contact list).

Figure 1 : this column looks up a contact list that has well over 100 items, but only shows 100

The Solution

I must say, I guess this made sense (I found the solution after all) but I do find it a little strange/perplexing that it would be the way it would work). The thing is, that lookup column pulls the number of items that are displayed in the “default view” of the contact list. I.e. the default view for a Contacts List is called “All Contacts” and its item display limit is 100 (by default). By setting that limit to something higher, I was able to manipulate then, what appeared in the column in the Document Information Panel. So, I cranked that up to a point that I was comfortable with and the problem was solved.

Figure 2 : After bumping up the default view item limit, my Ribbon dropdown played along nicely

Notes/Reminders

• Remember, don’t start getting all crazy on y our item displays. SharePoint gets cranky after displaying more than 2500 items at a time and this is well documented. Then again, 2500 items to scroll through in a dropdown list is somewhat silly anyways, I’d venture
• While the article below didn’t help me, I did find it rather interesting (and something for the back of the noggin) in regards to behaviour of the Document Information Panel, depending on whether your document template is the default (upload) or connected to another document library (which I like because it is a central store, versioning, permissions, etc.). Storing Templates for Content Types in a Document Library – Link: http://mphacker.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8040CC624DDC5404!1036.entry