How to Merge Linked Layers in Photoshop CS3

I have two layers of my Photoshop document that I have linked together. And I linked this together because I want to be able to move them together in my document. There is no reason for them to be separate. I don’t want that line to get in front of my title. So I am now at the point where I want to apply an effect to both the title and the underline.

Now I could go ahead and I could do that individually to each layer but if I merge those layers then I can apply that effect just once. So in order to merge linked layers go ahead and go up to your layer menu and go to select linked layers and then go ahead and go back up to the layer menu and go to merge layers and it will go ahead and it will merge the layers. Now I have this one layer right here that is both my title and my underline and I could go ahead and apply an effect to it just like how you would do a single layer.