I am creating a new website with ColdFusion to drive my database for searching and downloading documents and have the following concerns and would like some advice.
I use Dreamweaver - should I use Dreamweaver's fluid layout?
If I use Dreamweaver's fluid layout does this limit/complicate my build options?
This new web page will be primarily used on regular computer screens and don't want to put too much effort for mobile devices but would like this option.
What about bootstrap? Is this an alternative to Dreamweaver's fluid layouts?
You can (I wouldn't), but "fluid" sites are an older design technique developed prior to mobile devices being common and useful. So Fluid != Responsive and responsive is what you want. A fluid layout just shrinks the width of each element defined as a percentage. So if your site is three columns set at 25% / 50% / 25% of the viewport, those ratios maintain no matter what. So on a small screen, you still have a three column layout just very, very tiny.
It's a different way to build a site. It's not really an alternative to fluid, as fluid is not responsive nor modern and bootstrap based sites can be responsive. Responsive sites do something a little different than fluid. A responsive site typically uses a grid-based design and the javascript element measures how much space is available in the display (and the type of display) and reflows the content based on the rules you define. So a responsive site uses one template, but that template looks different on the desktop, tablet, and phone screens. Three columns can be shrunk to two or one, elements can be repositioned based on width, etc. Bootstrap is a library that simplifies this work...you just drop it in and configure.