Trying to make a custom region disappear upon user login, then reappear when user logs out
Context is a great plugin for remodelling sections of your website - paired with Delta and the Omega theme, you can overhaul your entire layout based on nearly any condition without editing any code by hand.

There's a decent intro tutorial for Context and Delta over here.

But if that doesn't fit the bill, you're on the right track with your .tpl.php files. Checking for user login is quick, just remember to global the variable first:

&lt;?php
global $user;

if ( $user-&gt;uid ) {
  // Logged in user
}
else {
  // Not logged in
}
?&gt;


... and by inserting the desired code between braces you could easily toggle blocks, regions, messages and nearly anything else accessible from the template.

This is my "PRINT ALL THE THINGS!!" snippet, try it out for the $user variable:

&lt;?php global $user; echo '&lt;pre&gt;'.print_r($user, true).'&lt;/pre&gt;'; ?&gt;


Good luck!