Problem with displaying percentages in a Microsoft Access 2010 form. You’d think this would be an easy, and intuitive thing, but different versions of Access handle it different ways.

I have a field for FTE (full-time equivalency) which should be a percentage. So, for example, if a part time worker works three days a week, they are 60% FTE. I want to store this in my Access 2010 contacts table. This turned out to be much more difficult than I anticipated, but one solution which seems to work is the following:

1. In the table design, define the field as Data Type = Number.

Set the field properties as:

Field Size = Double.
Format = Percent
Decimal Places = 0

2. Test this by entering data in table view, and it should display correctly, and also allow you to enter whole numbers. So for 100%, you’ll just enter “100” and for 60% you’ll just enter “60”. It will look like this:

3. Add the FTE field to the form, by dragging it from the “Add Existing Fields” List.