 <p>I used the (penultimate) code in Robert McKee's solution, however, had to adapt it to get it to compile and display correctly in the view:</p> <pre><code>public ActionResult Create() { ViewBag.AllSystems = new MultiSelectList(db.dbSystem.Select(x=&gt;new { Name=x.systemName, Value=x.systemId }),"Value","Name"); return View(); } </code></pre> <p>etc....</p>