Majid Niazkar - phD. Student, Dept. of Civil Eng., Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
Seied Hosein Afzali - S. H. Afzali is Assistant Prof., Dept. of Civil Eng., Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Excel spreadsheet not only provides usefulopportunities to solve various computational engineeringproblems but also can help improving the curriculum ofengineering courses. In this paper, first the reasons ofpopularity of spreadsheets among other numerical softwaresalong with their unique facilities are introduced. Afterwards, aliterature review on the application of spreadsheets such asExcel in different engineering fields was presented.Furthermore, two new application of Excel in civil engineeringwere recommended. Finally, it is highly suggested thatinstructors encourage educators to utilize spreadsheets such asExcel in their educational tasks since it provides a betterunderstanding of exact problem solving procedure incomparison to other softwares, especially the commercial ones.