Question regarding inserts and freezing

Hello.
I’m using cubase elements 7 and I want to simply “apply” an insert effect to a waveform and see the actual waveform image show the change made to it. For example, I want to apply compression to an audio file and be able the see the lowered peaks in the waveform. So far, the fastest way I know to do this is by inserting a compressor, freezing the track and then importing the file from the freeze folder into a new track. For some reason, the waveform from a frozen track still shows the unchanged image without the effects applied to it.
Isn’t there a way to just “apply” the insert effects on the wav, or even on just a small selection of the wav?

You can select the audio event or a region in the editor and then choose the plug from the audio menu (or in the sample editor from the process tab)
The downside to this method is that you can’t audition the effect within a mix.

EDIT: Sorry not sure if this function is available in Elements…I see in the comparison chart it says no offline process history so presumably there’s no offline process??

Yes, those options are not available in Elements, I didn’t know this was called “offline process” so I didn’t actually know how to properly search for it.
Thank you.