I have converted an older SharePoint Publishing site to the modern UI. I would like to reclaim the space on the left hand side that is used by the quick launch. I have tried disabling quick launch in the site settings but it does not remove the left hand nav. I am using managed navigation term sets for the global navigation.

Not yet. They are adding this ability by end of year I believe.

SharePoint publishing site using modern layout - can i remove left nav?

Deleted
Oct 28, 2018
Have you tried removing all the items from the navigation? When I do that in my tenant it hides the left hand navigation. Personally I think it throws the page design off not having it, it is whatever works best for you and your users :-)
- Robert Woods
  Iron Contributor
  Nov 07, 2018
  That wont work on this site for some reason, I believe due to being a publishing site. I did do this on a new modern team site and I see what you mean about throwing the page design off. Its pretty funky.
  - Fromelard
    Iron Contributor
    Nov 07, 2018
    Hi,
    
    I had the same case in mine and the solution I found is to change the local left navigation to use the internal level navigation.
    
    When it's done I clicked on Edit and removed all the menu items.
    
    Now when that home page is loading the left navigation is empty and the page layout is sliding automatically to remove the left menu object.
    
    You can probably find also the CSS Object and put into your modern page some JS code masking that object.
    
    Fab
ChrisWebbTech
MVP
Oct 21, 2018
Not yet. They are adding this ability by end of year I believe.