The abstract model-theoretic concepts of compactness and Löwenheim-Skolem properties are investigated in the "softer" framework of pre-institutions [18]. Two compactness results are presented in this paper: a more informative reformulation of the compactness theorem for pre-institution transformations, and a theorem on natural equivalences with an abstract form of the first-order pre-institution. These results rely on notions of compact transformation, which are introduced as arrow-oriented generalizations...