Q: What is the replacement to the Drawing and Database functions in Appleworks?

• Word Processing documents can be opened directly in Pages (AppleWorks 6 only), though Panergy Software'sdocXConverter v3.2 ($19.95) can convert Appleworks 5 and 6 Word Processing documents to RTF (though it has been reported that it can only handle documents which contain only text, not those which include images or frames); and the latest version of the free LibreOffice has announced that it can open AppleWorks 6 Word Processing documents: it does appear to be able to handle at least some embedded images.
• Draw Documents can be opened directly only in EazyDraw (the more expensive version from their website, not the cheaper one from the Mac App Store, and you will need v4.0 'Retro' not the most recent version) or Intaglio (though this appears not to be able to handle very complex drawings).
• Spreadsheets can be opened directly only in Numbers.
• Presentations can be opened directly only in Keynote.

To use other programs, or open Painting or Database documents at all, you must export from AppleWorks first: nothing will open these types of documents.

There are better paint programs around than AW's rather primitive paint module. As to Databases, the only real replacement is Filemaker Pro which is quite expensive. You can only move your databases to it by exporting as ASCII text and importing into FMPro - you will have to recreate all your formatting and calculations.

This article looks in detail at 'Abandoning Appleworks':

http://rfwilmut.net/aw