How do I use the map?

I played FFXIV before but took a break from it for quite some time. Now I have started playing it again and I just can't remember how to use the map.

My biggest concern is that it is very difficult to travel from one area to my quest locations. Is there someway to mark a location and get a guidance arrow appearing on my minimap? That would be great

It's very confusing at first but once you get used to it, it's easy to use.

To open your map, you can press M on a keyboard. To find out where a quest objective is, click the quest in the list (or open the journal with J) and click the "Map" button. It will show you a red circle or quest icon where the quest objective is. If you can't see the red circle, you can zoom in with the scroll button on a mouse.

If a quest objective is not in the current area, it will show a quest icon on the map of the exit you should take to get to your objective. So if there are 3 exits it will show a quest icon on the right one to take.

You can teleport to a location near the quest objective if you have attuned to the aetheryte there. Just click the aetheryte on the map and it will let you initiate a teleport.

Quest icons do appear on the minimap if they are in the same area, so you can follow the direction of it there as well.

1. Click your objective in the quest tracker. Make sure you click the objective, not the quest name. Clicking the objective will open up the large map with a quest marker showing where the objective is. Clicking the quest name will open the journal (not what you want).
2. If the map opens up at a more zoomed out level, keep clicking the marked location until it zooms in all the way to the zone where you need to go.
3. Hold the Ctrl key to make aetheryte icons float to the top of other icons so you can click them without having to maneuver your mouse cursor around other nearby icons.
4. Click the aetheryte to teleport there.
5. A quest icon should appear on the edge of the mini map showing the direction you need to go.

If one of your tracked quests has an objective in an adjacent zone, a quest symbol will appear next to the adjacent zone name label on your current zone map. Click the adjacent zone name label to open the map to that zone, then decide if it would be faster to run to the zone line or teleport.

If you want to mark something on the map for yourself or a friend, ctrl+rightclick the location to drop a Flag. You can share the map link to this flagged location in chat with the <flag> tag. You can share your current position with the <pos> tag, and if you click any map link it will set that as the new <flag> on your map. Whenever you are in the zone where you've dropped a flag, a flag will appear on the edge of your mini map showing you the direction you need to go.

Thanks for the tips, it works great now