First: http://www.google.de/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_deDE291&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=chm+editor
Second: The CHM Editor of Microsoft is of course not very user friendly (hey man.. microsoft is never user friendly
) and not very easy to use, but it contains more than enough functions to compile and decompile a chm file out of several html files, add search functions and add an index tab to your help file.
So why do you not just create your html chm files with a html editor (in case you have one
- if not there are several good ones in the web - also free ones) and compile them with the official microsoft chm editor.
This works fine, saves money and maybe also time as you can work with your already known html-editor.