In Mac OS 9, tear off palette windows, such as those you find in the paint and draw environments, had gray title bars--as if they were in the background--and no close box. See Figure 1. These windows could only be closed when associated documents were closed. The updater fixes this issue. See Figure 2.
Figure 1. A Fill Color palette window from AppleWorks 5.0.3 in Mac OS 9.
Figure 2. A Fill Color palette window from AppleWorks 5.0.4 in Mac OS 9.
For information on AppleWorks 5.0.4 Updater see article 60620: AppleWorks 5.0.4 Document and Software