Person or Group field, show drop down instead of Check Name button

Question

I have a calendar where people are assigned to tasks. I am using a Person or Group datatype for the Assigned To field.

In other lists on my site, I see the following:

Then when I start to type a name, I get a dropdown of options:

In my calendar, the people picker looks like the following:

where you have to enter the name then check it to make sure it has identified the user. Using the directory is frustrating and slow.

The settings for both examples are exactly the same:

• Optional
• Enforce unique values: No
• Allow multiple selections: No
• Allow selection of: People Only
• Choose from: All Users
• Show field: Name (with presence)

The drop down is faster, easier, cleaner, and just overall better in my opinion so I'd really like to use it on all my forms.

1. Is the Person or Group field different because one is a task list and the other is a calendar?

2. How can I change the field from having a button to using the drop down?

Answer 1

This is because you are using classic view.

You can type the person's first name or the whole name and press CTRL+K

If the name is unique in your organization you are done.

Else you get a red squiggly line, then click on the name later you get a dropdown of possible matching names.

Select one of them.

Hope it helps.

Answer 2

Open a form for your calendar list (or create a custom form) in SharePoint Designer.

For user picker field replace:

<SharePoint:FormField runat="server" id="ff8{$Pos}" ControlMode="New" FieldName="testuser" __designer:bind="{ddwrt:DataBind('i',concat('ff8',$Pos),'Value','ValueChanged','ID',ddwrt:EscapeDelims(string(@ID)),'@testuser')}"/>

with

<SharePoint:ClientPeoplePicker runat="server" id="ff8{$Pos}" ControlMode="New" FieldName="testuser" __designer:bind="{ddwrt:DataBind('i',concat('ff8',$Pos),'Value','ValueChanged','ID',ddwrt:EscapeDelims(string(@ID)),'@testuser')}"/>

It works for SharePoint Server 2013. Hope it'll work in SPO.