thanks mraneri - that line of script worked perfectly in the hard buttons:

page().widget("volbarpanel").visible = true;

I also found that in order for the functions defined at activity level to work with the page objects, when the function was called by a hard button, I had to pass the page().widget object refs to the activity level functions in order for the functions to refer to the widgets on the current page visible.

I tried defining my vars at activity level, and setting them using the page script on each page. However the hard buttons still did not refer to the widgets on page currently visible. They only ever pointed at the widgets on the first page in the device accessed.

Anyway - it works. Many thanks to all for your helpful insight and advice.