Loosing effects when merging

I need to know how to preserve the font effects when layers are merged. I have tried creating a second layer to merge with, rasterizing, and saved as PDF and leaving those layers un-merged. All have left my text without the bevel and outer glow, giving my design a flat and unflattering look. Is there some function I have hit by accident? hepl !!!
creativeimedia.net - London Website Designers

I've encountered this before too, and I personally haven't found a way to fix it, hopefully someone else here does know.

BUT a workaround that usually does the trick, is flattening the whole image, instead of merging. For some reason, the merging process doesn't remove the layer effects when I would flatten, but it did when I merged selected layers, or used "merge down".

I realize you may not be ready to flatten the image yet, and you don't want that white background that comes with it, but those issues might be easier to deal with.

you could try turning off specific layers to leave the text and an empty layer and use "Merge Visible", see if that helps?

i'm doing as you say. but i can't seem to fix it