[Zope] Variable setting in 'if' for use outside of 'if'

Is there any means of setting variables other than 'with'? As best I can determine, the mechanism for setting variable using 'with' provides those values only within the 'with' block. I would like to preface my html with an if-elif-elif-else block, using it to set a variable so that a simple if-else test can be used later on. I would prefer not to have to replicate the full document within each portion of the if-elif-elif-else block, but I can't find a way to set a variable in the if-elif-elif-else block that can carry over to the rest of the document, since Zope considers it an error for a tag to be only partially contained within a larger block. Please help.