A lot of my images are logo files that have either a transparent or white background, and I find it confusing sometimes. I am new to inkscape, so I don't know if this is possible or not. If it is can someone tell me how I can change this?
Yes, you can. Open the document's properties panel (Shift+Ctrl+D), and change the colour at the top from transparent white to a darker shade with opacity (change the alpha value to 255).