Without wishing to sound smug, bern, it sounds like you have fallen into the classic group of non-enthusiasts whio think that a dSLR will automatically give you better pictures than a compact. dSLRs are aimed at enthusiasts who are willing to spend a bit of time and effort on "post-processing" - working with the RAW files to give them an image that suits their individual taste. By following the advice given in the other answers above, you can tweak some of the basic JPEG processing that is done in camera, but ultimately the best way is to shoot in RAW and post-process yourself.
I do hope you get to grips with the camera; have fun and enjoy yourself!