The study analyses the Standard Archive Description Tools developed in different countries in order to verify the content description in these documents. It deals with the theoretical aspects of Thematic Data Processing: subject cataloguing, indexing and documentary analysis and their objects: products, tools and processes. It presents theoretical currents of archive thinking: traditional, records management and integrated, as well as disagree on the history of archival description and the development of manuals, standards and guidelines that have been created in order to standardise the archival description process. It carries out a survey of Standard Archive Description Instruments in different countries, and 12 have been collected and characterised in Portuguese, Spanish and English. From these, eight Standard Archival Description Instruments have been selected which include the description of the content in their structure, thus making it possible to analyse whether or not there are features of the theoretical aspects of the Thematic Information Processing and to identify the aspects indicated by the literature of the TTI area: processes, products and tools. It appears that archive documents have specific characteristics that need to be analysed differently from bibliographic material. However, it is possible to establish a dialogue between the areas of Thematic Information Processing and Archivology with a view to improving access to information. It contributes to the transposition of these concepts and theories from Information Science, the context of the archive document and the discussions on the theoretical and practical development of Thematic Data Processing in Archivology.