These are two things that are important to me because I do a lot of photos outdoors. I use the macro a lot to do flowers. You can focus very close to the object (within inches), so for example a bee on a flower petal looks large enough to see the individual legs and eyes. In other words the tiny bee fills up the entire photo. Most digitals I've seen are pretty good with macros.

With zoom you can take photos of objects far away and make them seem closer. You could zoom in on a bluebird in a tree and make him look larger and closer getting lots of detail. If you do scenic or wildlife photos, get as much zoom as you can afford--it can be expensive.

You can also take macro shots with the zoom, something I've just learned about in the past year. But in general, macro means very close shots, like Bean Counter said.
JoanMN

Joanmn, I do that too. When I don't want to get down on my hands and knees and crawl thru the rose bushes I combine the zoon and macro to get a good close up from a distance. I'm not real happy with the way my new Panasonic camera handles the combination.

I will try to take a picture in the same setting doing both to see what kind of effect I get. Thanks so much for all the tips. I am going to take a class in Sept to help with some photo stuff, but there is nothing like first hand knowledge and experience..

When I zoom, I don't use the macro setting, but move back and forth (or zoom in and out) til the camera focuses on what I want.
JoanMN

yes, I don't think you can use the macro and the zoom at the same time. Zoom is for far away things that are not tiny. Macro is for tiny things that you want big and in full detail, like a small flower or a lady bug. You must be close to make the macro work.