Telling Python to save a .txt file to a certain directory on Windows and Mac

Question

How do you tell Python where to save a text file?

For example, my computer is running the Python file off my desktop. I want it to save all the text file in my documents folder, not on my desktop. How do I do that in a script like this?

name_of_file = raw_input("What is the name of the file: ")
completeName = name_of_file + ".txt"
#Alter this line in any shape or form it is up to you.
file1 = open(completeName , "w")

toFile = raw_input("Write what you want into the field")

file1.write(toFile)

file1.close()

Answer 1

Just use an absolute path when opening the filehandle for writing.

import os.path

save_path = 'C:/example/'

name_of_file = raw_input("What is the name of the file: ")

completeName = os.path.join(save_path, name_of_file+".txt")         

file1 = open(completeName, "w")

toFile = raw_input("Write what you want into the field")

file1.write(toFile)

file1.close()

You could optionally combine this with os.path.abspath() as described in Bryan's answer to automatically get the path of a user's Documents folder. Cheers!