How do I flatten an image in Photoshop with a transparent background?

[Lucky82610]

Hello!  I am trying to flatten an image in Photoshop while keeping my transparent background.  When I flatten, it gives me this white background instead.  Someone posted this, "thanks for the help. I've seemed to of figured it out. what I did was>merge all visible layers(except for the background layer),>command and click on the layer to select all>flatten image>command j>deselect> and then delete the flatten layer. this gave me the transparent background I was looking for." but it didn't help me.  Please help!         

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Which Photoshop are you using?  Is it Photoshop or Photoshop Elements?  If you can also include the version you are utilizing it would be appreciated as well.

[Lucky82610]

Hello Jeff a Wright,

The version of Photoshop I am using is Photoshop CS5.1.  Whenever I flatten an image, it makes a white background, and gets rid of my transparent background.         

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Moving this discussion to the Photoshop General Discussion forum.  The users in this forum should be able to help with your how-to inquiry.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Don't flatten.  Delete the background layer, and Save as a GIFF or PNG.

[Lucky82610]

Thank you alot!  You really helped.

[Chris Cox · Accepted solution]

You want to merge the layers, not flatten - as mentioned in your original post.

Flattening is supposed to get rid of transparency.