Adobe pdf format is a format for publishing documents on the web that seems to protect authors a little, to the extent that you can read and print the document, but you can't mofify it. It also looks pretty good, preserves a lot of formatting, and is relatively compact.

The downside is that you need the Adobe Acrobat reader to see the file. Fortunately it's free from adobe. If you don't have it, you should anyway. Get it at www.adobe.com You want the acrobat "reader".