Merged Project hyperlinks not working

I know there are other topics on this and I have reviewed them and the external link to Peter's assistance site. I must be totally missing the boat on how to correctly set up cross project hyperlinks.

I am using RoboHelp x8.

I have one "parent" project that will be the generic GUI help for a multiple product platform.

There will be several "child" projects that contain the data definitions for each of the products.

Right now, we only have one product offering for this platform (with more to follow).

I have the following source structure:

Parent Project (User Reference)

-- Child Project (Vector Securities)

I have the following generated WebHelp structure:

WebHelp Parent

--mergedProjects

----Vector Securities

I have created a hyperlink from one parent topic to one child topic to test.

I generate the child and parent help in WebHelp format.

The parent WebHelp has the mergedProjects folder with the child subfolder inside.

I have published the child WebHelp to the child subfolder inside of the mergedProjects folder.

When I open the parent WebHelp, I can see and navigate to the child topics and they appear in the TOC.

I also see the index entries for the child from the parent WebHelp.

So, it appears all is fine... but, when I go to a "parent" topic and click a hyperlink to a "child" toipc, I get the message:

"Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage"

Here is how I set up the hyperlink:

From the parent topic, I highlight text and click Insert Hyperlink

I select the FILE option and navigate to the topic in the source of the child project

I select the topic for the hyperlink

Once selected, the Link To entry field shows:

../Vector Securities/HPI_Volatility_Index_Metrics.htm

When I update the hyperlink, I get the message about an external link and click OK

When I look at the hyperlink in the HTML source code of the parent topic, it looks like this:

<a title="HPI Volatility Index Metrics" href="../Vector Securities/HPI_Volatility_Index_Metrics.htm">Hyperlink</a>

Can anyone direct me to where I went off track on setting up the cross project hyperlinks?

As always, any help would be appreciated --

Michael F Weart