State changes and navigation

Hello all, I am relatively new to Storyline (using Storyline 2) and updating some existing modules. I have puzzled over this for a little while and can't find anything in the forums which exactly answers the question (though picked up lots of related useful info) so hoping someone can help:

I have a 'menu' type screen with a bunch of 'options' buttons - clicking on each will take the learner to another slide / sequence of slides. I've set up the button 'visited' state with a nice subtle colour scheme, and when testing going in and out of the options via the buttons, everything works fine. However, I have set the navigation up so that if the learner doesn't click on a button but just clicks 'next', this will take them into the first of these options screens. And when they have viewed that screen, 'next' from there will take them onto the second ... and so on. So they have two ways of working through these options: sequentially via 'Next' button, or by clicking on the tailored buttons. I would like to find a way of having these buttons get their 'visited' state colours regardless of how the learner reached the option. Currently, if the learner clicks on the first button, then clicks 'Next' to traverse through the remaining options, it's only the first button which changes state (and hence colour). I understand why this is, and why any variable-setting that I do in those subsequent screens is not going to affect the state of the buttons on the menu screens, no matter how I word those triggers. I want to find a way of reducing the number of clicks for the user - so instead of having to always go back to the menu then out again to each option in turn, just using 'Next' to work through them seems a good idea. Alas, security settings at my end prevent me from sharing this (or viewing anything shared on this site), so hopefully the above lengthy description is sufficient to generate some ideas / solutions. Am not averse to plumbing in some JavaScript if that's the only way around this ... All ideas / suggestions most gratefully received!