I am trying to make a one page presentation, simple enough, but I digress. I plan to have a picture of a map and a list of locations on a side board. The intent is to mouse over or click either on list and a area of the map becomes highlighted and vice versa. I will be placing squares on the map at each location. I'm pretty sure it can be done with a macro but I'm not versed in macro at all. I want to do this with .PPT because it is a common format that most people can edit easy. Thanks.

I know that this is probably too late to help but you could try this; insert a square shape for each location on your side board. Format the squares so that their Outline is set to No Outline. Format the Fill Color Transparency setting to 99%, this makes the square invisible to the viewer. Now place a square over each of your location names. Hint: you might want to leave the Outline turned on until you are done so that you can see them as you create this. Next, determine how you want the map to look when a location is highlighted; for this example we'll say that a Red Circle will appear on the location. Create a Red Circle for each location on the map, add the Appear Animation Style you like such as Fade and set the Timing of the Animation to occur as a Trigger with the Trigger being the applicable "Invisible Box" that you placed over the appropriate Location Name on your Side Bar. You can do the same thing to make the names on the Side Bar appear/disappear or change font color.
Good Luck,
denny