How to copy multiple contacts from Outlook to Lync

It is kind of amazing how crippled the co-operation is between Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Lync. (Note:  I am talking about Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, with Outlook version 14.0 32-bit and Lync 2010.) All I wanted to do was to copy contacts from the Outlook contacts list to the Lync contacts list. Never mind the fact that these two programs should be sharing the exact same contact list and I should not have to do anything of that sort; it sounds like a simple task, right?  Copy contacts from one program to another. These two programs belong to the same Office suite and are supposedly seamlessly integrated with each other. Well, seamlessly my @$$. You can copy single contacts from Lync to Outlook. But if you want to copy a contact from Outlook to Lync, or copy multiple contacts, then you are completely out of luck.  No-can-do, apparently.

Well, I found a trick to do it.  Here is how:

1. Select all the contacts within Outlook that you want to copy to Lync.
2. Hit "Send email", and a new email will be prepared, with all the selected contacts in the "To:" field.
3. Select all the contacts in the "To:" field.
4. Drag and drop the contacts from the "To:" field into a group (not contact) in Lync.
5. Discard the new email.

Voila!

If you know of a simpler way, please let me know.

Also, if you know of any way to do perform the incredibly advanced operation of... (drum roll please) PRINT YOUR OUTLOOK CONTACTS WITH PICTURES, (duh!) please let me know.

Cheers!