Importance Across Books
A character who carries your first book can fade into the background by the third. In a series, Importance is kept separately for each Book, so it can say exactly that. Sherlock stays Primary throughout while Inspector Lestrade drops from Primary in Book 1 to Background in Book 3.
Importance is your note about how much a character, item, or location matters, and what your character and item lists sort by. Primary counts as the highest, then Secondary, then Background. One note on capital letters: a Book means one book inside your series, and a lowercase book means an ordinary standalone one.
What You See
Which of the two you see depends on the This Book / All Books switch (see This Book vs All Books).
In This Book, you see one level, the one that Book uses: Importance: Secondary. Everything reads as it would in a standalone book.
In All Books, you get one entry per Book the character appears in, each with a small book icon and the Book's number: 1: Primary, 2: Secondary. Roomier places list every Book; where there isn't room, such as a small card or the narrow sidebar, you get the first few and a count of the rest, like 1: Primary, +2.
Note: When every Book agrees, you just see the single level. The list only appears once a character actually differs from one Book to the next, so a series where you've never touched Importance reads exactly like a standalone book.
Setting a Level for One Book
A level belongs to one Book, so you set it while you're looking at one Book. To give Lestrade a different level in Book 3 than he has in Book 1:
- Go to Book 1 and switch to This Book.
- In Edit mode, use the Importance box under his name on his character page, or the Importance box on an item or location's details. To skip Edit mode, right-click (or Ctrl+click on Mac) his page and choose Change Importance.
- Switch to Book 3 and set his level again there.
Step 3 is the one that's easy to miss. The bar at the top of the window shows Current Book: followed by the Book you're in; click it and pick another Book. See Switching Between Books.
Setting a level changes that Book alone, and you can change it back whenever you like. The level does belong to the Book, so taking a character out of a Book in Presence takes that Book's level with them. Put them back and they start from their usual level again.
Why the Levels Gray Out in All Books
In the All Books view the Importance box still opens, but the three levels inside it are grayed out, with a line above them saying that Importance can differ per Book and to switch to This Book to set it. With several Books on screen at once, there's no single Book for your choice to land in. Switch to This Book and the levels come back. The right-click menus say the same thing, in the same place.
What Carries Over
Turning a finished book into a series changes nothing: everyone keeps the level they already had, in every Book, until you vary one. Adding a character to another Book doesn't leave them blank there either; they start at the level they had before you set any per-Book levels.
Duplicating a Book gives the copy the same levels the original had. Splitting a series apart gives each standalone book the level that Book was using, so the Book 3 version of Lestrade opens as Background; see Splitting a Series into Separate Books.
Tip: Importance is separate from Presence, which is the list of Books a character appears in. Presence decides whether they show up in a Book at all; Importance describes how much they matter in the Books they're in. See Presence: Which Books a Character Is In.
Tip: Sorting by importance in All Books uses each character's highest level across the Books they're in, so someone who leads Book 1 and cameos in Book 3 still sorts with your leads.