This means that they should be able to be read by nearly any word processing program. You should save them to a disk, open the word processing program of your choice, THEN open the document. Frequently, just double clicking an RTF document will not open the program. They can be read by any computer that has word processing. More complex formatting is lost.
Tables often come out different than intended.
Any program can be be downloaded. This includes PowerPoint, etc. Just as it would be true if you received the document on a disk, you need the right software to use the program. Most of them use a key word system. You will see a space to type in words.