User Reference Help for Portal Services
Administrators typically configure default settings
for each instance of a portlet before making it available to users.
When you access the Cognos® portlets through your portal, you can change some settings to customize instances of each Cognos portlet. You can then save your settings for subsequent sessions.
You can change the content and layout of a portlet using the edit
button 
on
the title bar. If the page or portlet is read-only or locked by an
administrator, the edit button is disabled or does not appear on the
portlet title bar.