When running ClarisWorks 4.0 with Mac OS 8, the menus will not be gray when "System-wide platinum appearance" is checked in the Appearance Control Panel. Instead, the Font menu will have a gray border, and other menus will have white squares in them.
This is a cosmetic problem. The menus do work correctly.
From the Mac OS 8 Read Me file:
"Unusual or inconsistent appearance
Some applications will exhibit unusual or inconsistent cosmetic anomalies when used with Mac OS 8. These are harmless, but if they bother you turn off the system-wide setting in the Appearance control panel. Contact the manufacturer of the program to see if an updated version of the program is available."
At this time there is no update to ClarisWorks 4.0 that fixes this problem, and no update is planned. This problem is corrected in ClarisWorks Office 5.0.