Defining image area of expoerted PNGs

[Benjamin M. Root IV]

Hi Gang,
I'm trying to build some illos in AI to be typically placed into a MS PowerPoint layout. However, these drawing will sometimes be used in other applications (EG LinkedIn posts) with different aspect ratios. I've created a template for the max size of the PPT page, with margin guides to keep my in the image area of the PPT template content (not overlapping on the PPT header/title and footer areas). Other times, I have title and footer content in the Illo itself (EG Linked-In). I thought I could turn on/off layers as needed for each application, And (Here's my point!) have background white boxes to represent each aspect ratio. As the illo gets exported as a PNG with transparent backgound, I though the image area would be constraind/defined by my white box, creating a consistent image size (no matter what art is inside the boxed area). That was supposed to help the team building the PPT presentations just drop perfectly-sized PNGs into place and have art align properly from page to page.

Instead, what I'm finding is that the PNGs are created with transparent space above my white box (in the header area, even though there's no art up there). But strangly, the PNGs are cut off on the bottom, not showing any background even though there is page size below my illustration. Gosh, that sounds confusing.

See the screen shot of the AI document, compared to the exported PNG, below.

[Benjamin M. Root IV · Accepted solution]

OK...I solved this myself. (classic!)

The trick is to use the Asset Export feature to export everything except the unused background area. My artwork is on multiple layers, so using grouping to define the asset isn't going to work. Basically, I unlock all the relevent layers, select all, then option+drag to the Asset Export tool/dialog box to creat a single assett. this can also be from inside the diaglog box with  the "+" button "Generate a single assett from the selection". Helped myself...I hope this helps others who need to create PNGs without the empty background area.