How do I flatten a PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC?

I'm running Adobe Acrobat Pro DC on Windows 10.

I scan a single page of text and save it as a PDF. From a photo editing application (doesn't matter what it is), copy an image into the clipboard (1 inch by 2 inches is fine). Launch Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and open the PDF. Now do Edit > Paste and drag/size the image to some place on the page. How do I save this as a PDF without a separate image "floating" on the page.

My objective: when the consumer of the PDF clicks on what used to be the image, the entire page is selected, not just the 1" X 2" image.

What I have tried:

1. Tools > Print Production > Preflight > PDF fixups > Flatten annotations and form fields and then click on Analyze and fix. The result is "Flatten all annotations into page contents (1 object)" and "No problems found". I close Adobe Acrobat. From Explorer I confirm the file was created and that the timestamp indicates it was just created. It is identical to the file I started with. When I click on what was the image, only the image is selected, proving that no flattening had occurred.

2. There is a script floating around the web:

   this.flattenPages();

   From Adobe Acrobat: Tools > Javascript and then Document JavaScripts.

   I enter a script name, click Add, and enter the script. Now what? There is no Run button anywhere. How do I run this script?

3. Printing the document to a PDF printer from within Adobe Acrobat and from within the Edge browser. Both resulting PDF files that preserve the image as a separate object.

The Workaround:

This is really ugly, but the only way I could get what I wanted was to print the page to a color printer and then scan the freshly printed page as a PDF and replace the page giving me trouble with the freshly scanned page.

2 Answers

Item 2 is almost there, but what you would do is open the Console (you may have to activate it first in the JavaScript tab of the Acrobat Preferences), enter

this.flattenPages() ;

then bring the cursor back onto that line and press <Ctrl><Return> (on Windows) or <Cmd><Return> (on Mac). If your keyboard has the numeric block, you may also press the <Enter> key there.

You might refer to this tutorial for a more in-depth explanation.

Control J opens console. In the console (lower left dialog box) type flattenPages(); tap enter

That's it. It flattens the active PDF file. Please note that it must be written EXACTLY as described with lowercase f and uppercase P.

Some of this is probably obvious to those that write scripts. Very unintuitive.