After registration or while waiting for your CVS account information email (which ought to be sent in 2-3 days), you can proceed down the following steps:
You must have Arabic support setup on your system. If you don't already have Arabic support on your Linux installation, then please refer to the Arabic HOWTO in order to properly configure matters.
If you are using an MS-Windows Operating System machine, we highly recommend you start using Linux instead (consider a partition install in which you can use both). Linux will open many new doors and will offer you the possibility to discover the fabulous world of Open Source Software :-) You are also very unlikely to get good answers to your questions if you insist on using MS-Windows (as most, if not all users on Arabeyes, use Linux or a unix derivative).
Once you've decided on which project you are going to work on, proceed to check out its files. If you have a fast internet connection (DSL or better or are willing to stay online for prolonged periods of time with a dialup), it's recommended that you checkout the entire project's files (i.e. if you will work on GNOME translation for example, then checkout translate/gnome/ directory). The massive checkout will help you in building your KBabel database/dictionary among other things. If, on the other hand, you have a more restrictive Internet connection and are more limited on your time, you can download only the file(s) that you will be actively working on and translating. Please note, you don't need to have a CVS account to checkout the files; check the CVS HOWTO access section for further details.
Continue reading this document with special attention to specific translation guidelines (here) as well as the translation tools. You should also read the Arabic Documentation Standards for better familiarity.
Start translating the file(s) :-)
Please commit your file(s) regularly. You don't have to wait to finish a file's translation in order to commit it into CVS either. Refer to the CVS HOWTO guidelines section concerning committing. The "committing often" is crucial in order to avoid disasters (the mistaken removal of a file for instance) and conflicts (though conflicts are supposed to be unlikely since normally there should only be ONE person working on a same file at any one time). If for any reason you are not able to commit your file(s) via CVS, you can send the files as email attachments to translate (at) arabeyes dot org and post that you've done that to 'doc'.
Here is a list of some usual references that you may find useful while translating and which you can use in parallal with any printed dictionary that you may have (specific technical/computer terms dictionaries are preferable, and especially those edited by ALECSO). The already translated PO files are also a good reference. If you still have problems with a word or an expression that you can't translate, then expose the issue on the 'doc' list.
Ajeeb website. You can directly use the dictionary and/or the translation section.
Onelook website. Which is an english online dictionary that groups together many online dictionaries. Use it to find english definitions of words you are not sure of.