transferring XP files to Mountain Lion

I have a very old PC loaded with Works text files and some databases. My new machine is
an iMac running on Mountain Lion. If I save my word processing files at simple text, will I be able to open them in the Mac or should I try to convert them to Windows 7? Also, what will happen to the databases?
I am close to computer illiterate and terrified of making the wrong move! Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Your new iMac can open and edit text files so if you convert all your old word processing files to plain text there should be no problem. Data base files are a different matter though. What kind of data base files do you have? If they're DBase 3 files or MS Access, I'm not certain which Mac program can open them.

I'll defer to chscag on this, but I don't think the Mac can read Works files at all, you'll need to pre-convert them to text or Word files first (as he suggests). If the Works files are formatted, try to convert them to Word format if you're able to do so, that will preserve the formatting.

I know of *no* programs for the Mac that can work with MS Access or DBase 3 files, they'll also need to be converted to some other format.