\tempo note = other note

[Paul Scott]

Something that is almost as common as \tempo as defined in LilyPond is 
the ability to equate a time value in the next section equal to some 
time value in the preceding section as:

<quarter note> = <eighth note>

1.  Can someone show a simple way to do this now?

2.  This would be very useful if built into the current \tempo feature.

3.  The current tempo feature uses too large a font.  Can this be 
changed by the user?

Thanks,

Paul Scott