have you ever wished you could always view and print mark-up within pdf files regardless of the platform you are using? or that you could dramatically reduce the size of large pdf files? well, using mapsoft flattener, you can achieve not one but both of these goals. flattener is a useful software that allows extraneous interactive elements, such as bookmarks and movies, plus any unwanted mark-up, to be removed from your pdf files. it can also be used to flatten remaining mark-up and interactive elements into your document. this can have a significant impact on the size of your pdf file. not only are your documents smaller, but by flattening mark-up into your pdf documents, you can also ensure that mark-up is always available for viewing (and printing) even from pdas and third party viewers. and new enhancements added to v1.6 of flattener ensure that the original content of a pdf file is never hidden by the flattened mark-up. (this is because the new version of flattener allows you to flatten mark-up to a separate layer.) of course, once mark-up and form data have been flattened into the main document content, they can't be changed. and by flattening mark-up to a separate layer you have the extra peace of mind of knowing who added what and when to your document.