[Sugarcube 2] Twine 2: Adding sidebar elements after certain passages

I'm presently trying to add menus and stat displays to the sidebar- I'm using StoryMenu and StoryCaption, and both work fine until I try to add an if statement.

I'd like to prevent these from displaying until the intro to the story is done, is there someway to do so?
I've also seen some stories using set $ui, and adjusting the continue button itself. Is this a method for what I'm looking for?


EDIT:
I was passing variables incorrectly.
I would still like to know about using $ui, and if it's possible to add regular passage type links to the ui bar, instead of just menu buttons ( a la Save).