function tooltip

On the list of Functions (when making a Query) you have tooltips .. some are very long But they are impossible to read because the tooltip closes too quickly Please could they just stay open

(I note when selecting a new field type those tooltips remain as long as the selection dropdown is down)

I suppose you mean the tolltip on the right-side query helpers box. You should probably press F1 on the keyword for getting into the SQL help window, as shown in the screen here:

gosh! it never occured to me that the help was that specific... great :)

and, while I'm here... is there a reason why the Function dropdown list is not in alphabetical order?

I'd - sometimes! - like my Field names dropdown to be sorted... but i do appreciate that showing them in the order they are defined in the Table make (more) sense