I was seeing the .bin files in the directory when it wasn't working.@OldYobbo - Do you see many .bin files in the excel folder? Not sure if it makes a difference, but I don't have the extra rwm folder, just the data folder in Diablo II folder.
I resolved the issue by finding another source for the runes.txt file. It looked the same but perhaps my cutting and pasting was better the 2nd time.
Thanks for your help. My new necro can now use spirit!