Appleworks Database Functionality on Modern Macs?

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Appleworks Database Functionality on Modern Macs?

I'm finally converting my Appleworks6 database files to modern formats so I can preserve the data. First I redefine each field to hold a "Text" value (as opposed to a more specific type, like "Date" or "Number"). Then I'm using the method of "Save As" "ASCII" which saves the file as a Tab-Separated Values file type and I'm adding the suffix ".tsv". Then I can open the file in Apple's Numbers and resave it as a ".csv" file, which is apparently a more common/universal database format. Should I be stripping out all of the commas before the other parts of this process?

For most of my DB's having the data in order, in the right fields, is sufficient. However for some uses I want the extra's that Appleworks offered. I want to be able to format print layouts to custom labels with some imbedded graphics. I want to have nice screen layout formats with "print" out to PDF format option (I think the print out to PDF is still part of the Mac OS infrastructure on Lion, yes?). I would also like interoperability with iOS which means reading from and saving to the .csv format.

Does anyone here have recommendations? I might also be getting training in the use/management of SQL databases. I have no idea what format(s) are usable with that system.

Mutant Pie