Scrolling of a large number of list items can be supported without degradation in performance. Instead of continually moving list items into an actively laid out representation of the list items, list items can be moved in and out of the actively laid out representation as scrolling progresses. Management of the actively laid out representation can be performed transparently to a user to maintain the impression that the total list is present. List items can be grouped into page units, which can be managed to keep a constant number of page units present in the actively laid out representation. Further enhancements can be accomplished by storing some list items remotely.