diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Web.UI.Client/src/views/propertyeditors/dropdown/dropdown.controller.js b/src/Umbraco.Web.UI.Client/src/views/propertyeditors/dropdown/dropdown.controller.js
index 579da61857..ce75a5ab04 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Web.UI.Client/src/views/propertyeditors/dropdown/dropdown.controller.js
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Web.UI.Client/src/views/propertyeditors/dropdown/dropdown.controller.js
@@ -8,12 +8,14 @@ angular.module("umbraco").controller("Umbraco.Editors.DropdownController",
             keyName: "alias",
             valueName: "name"
         };
-        
+
         //map the user config
         angular.extend(config, $scope.model.config);
         //map back to the model
         $scope.model.config = config;
         
+        $scope.selectExpression = "e." + config.keyName + " as e." + config.valueName + " for e in model.config.items";
+
         //now we need to format the items in the array because we always want to have a dictionary
         for (var i = 0; i < $scope.model.config.items.length; i++) {
             if (angular.isString($scope.model.config.items[i])) {
diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Web.UI.Client/src/views/propertyeditors/dropdown/dropdown.html b/src/Umbraco.Web.UI.Client/src/views/propertyeditors/dropdown/dropdown.html
index 5249d017e2..a4e7079c1b 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Web.UI.Client/src/views/propertyeditors/dropdown/dropdown.html
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Web.UI.Client/src/views/propertyeditors/dropdown/dropdown.html
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 <div ng-controller="Umbraco.Editors.DropdownController">
     <select name="dropDownList"
         ng-model="model.value" 
-        required  
-        ng-options="e.alias as e.name for e in model.config.items"></select>    
+        ng-options="{{selectExpression}}"></select>    
 </div>
  
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Web/PropertyEditors/DropDownPreValueEditor.cs b/src/Umbraco.Web/PropertyEditors/DropDownPreValueEditor.cs
index 7d04f1ad9a..1db5cc9c3d 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Web/PropertyEditors/DropDownPreValueEditor.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Web/PropertyEditors/DropDownPreValueEditor.cs
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.PropertyEditors
     {
 
         /// <summary>
-        /// The editor is expecting a json array for a field with a key named "temp" so we need to format the persisted values
+        /// The editor is expecting a json array for a field with a key named "items" so we need to format the persisted values
         /// to this format to be used in the editor.
         /// </summary>
         /// <param name="defaultPreVals"></param>
@@ -24,9 +24,8 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.PropertyEditors
         {
             var dictionary = PreValueCollection.AsDictionary(persistedPreVals);
             var arrayOfVals = dictionary.Select(item => item.Value).ToList();
-            //var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(arrayOfVals);
 
-            return new Dictionary<string, object> { { "temp", arrayOfVals } };
+            return new Dictionary<string, object> { { "items", arrayOfVals } };
         }
 
         /// <summary>
@@ -42,7 +41,7 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.PropertyEditors
         /// </remarks>
         public override IDictionary<string, string> FormatDataForPersistence(IDictionary<string, object> editorValue, PreValueCollection currentValue)
         {
-            var val = editorValue["temp"] as JArray;
+            var val = editorValue["items"] as JArray;
             var result = new Dictionary<string, string>();
             
             if (val == null)
diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Web/PropertyEditors/DropDownPropertyEditor.cs b/src/Umbraco.Web/PropertyEditors/DropDownPropertyEditor.cs
index f668dcd9cf..6f8a8429a6 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Web/PropertyEditors/DropDownPropertyEditor.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Web/PropertyEditors/DropDownPropertyEditor.cs
@@ -17,10 +17,13 @@ namespace Umbraco.Web.PropertyEditors
                             new PreValueField
                                 {
                                     Description = "Add and remove values for the drop down list",
-                                    //we're going to call this 'temp' because we are going to override the 
+                                    //we're going to call this 'items' because we are going to override the 
                                     //serialization of the pre-values to ensure that each one gets saved with it's own key 
                                     //(new db row per pre-value, thus to maintain backwards compatibility)
-                                    Key = "temp",
+
+                                    //It's also important to note that by default the dropdown angular controller is expecting the 
+                                    // config options to come in with a property called 'items'
+                                    Key = "items",
                                     Name = ui.Text("editdatatype", "addPrevalue"),
                                     View = "Views/PropertyEditors/dropdown/dropdown.prevalue.html"
                                 }