[whpalmer4]

Yes, actions stay in the inbox until swept out to their projects with the Clean Up command. See the Data page of the preferences for settings to control the behavior. I use "Both a project and a context" and "Clean up completed Inbox items" because I don't want actions filed into the rest of the database until I've set both a project and a context, and sometimes tasks in my inbox will have a short enough lifetime before completion that they get done on the spot (DA's two minute policy).

Have you watched the various videos available on the OmniFocus web page? I think a new user should watch them, try the program out for a day or two, then watch them again. There's a lot to absorb, no question about it!