You could open a file using the Menubar->file->open.
If you use the Catalogues manager you could aslo open a file from the C.Manager with the Middle Button or from the Context Menu (right button).
To translate a msgstr you only have to put your translation into the Bottom-Right Editor (NewStr) then you can press "Prev"( or "Next") to go to previous (or ..try to guess) message. With "-> & Prev" and "-> & Next" you copy the content of OldStr (Bottom-Left) editor into the NewStr Editor and then you go to previous/next message.
You can search an old translation with "Search" & "Search in cat". The first button search in [lang].messages file a translation (you have to specify the full path of [lang].messages in setup). The second one look for a translation in old compiled catalogues (.mo files).
KTranslator Setup is divided in 5 sections.
Here you have to specify the full path of your copy of kde-i18n CVS module, you need this to use Catalogues Manager.
If you want to use the search function you need to put here the path+filename of your [lang].messages file. You can use here the KTranslator var %LANG%.
Example:
Path of CVS:
/usr/local/kde/cvs_local_copy/kde-i18n
[lang].messages path+filename:
/usr/local/kde/cvs_local_copy/www/messages/%LANG%.messages
You can also specify here a default language of translation.
Here you can put your personal data, used by Auto Header fucntion.
In that section you can find some options about Scroll (i.e. when you keep pressed a Next or Prev button).
Theese are the options of "Search" function (not Search in cats).
Here you can specify a template for your .po header (i.e. the msgstr of msgid "")
You can use:
%LANGUAGE% Full name of your language
%LANGLIST% Mailing List of your language
%AUTHORNAME% Your Name
%AUTHOREMAIL% Your Email
%DATE% Today!
%TIME% Now!
%ORIGINAL% Keep the same line of .pot file
Do not forget the "\n" at the end of the line.