Bug 33628 [Preferences] provide API for showing a specified preference page
There is no way for a plugin to open the (workbench) preference dialog with a certain peference page selected. Enabling this would allow plugins to refer the user to a certain preference page, for example when a misconfiguration is detected during execution of an action. Also this enables developers to write a new search panel to find a text in the preference pages and get the user right there. A method select(IPreferencePage page), select(IPreferenceNode node) or select(String path) in org.eclipse.jface.preference.PreferenceDialog would help.
bundles/org.eclipse.jface/src/org/eclipse/jface/preference/PreferenceDialog.java
* save any state, and then calls <code>close</code> to close this dialog.
	 */
	protected void okPressed() {
		
		Iterator nodes = preferenceManager.getElements(
				PreferenceManager.PRE_ORDER).iterator();
		while (nodes.hasNext()) {
			IPreferenceNode node = (IPreferenceNode) nodes.next();
			IPreferencePage page = node.getPage();
			if (page != null) {
				if (!page.performOk())
					return;
			}
		}
		
		
		handleSave();
		close();
	}
	/**
	 * Selects the page determined by <code>lastSuccessfulNode</code> in the
	 * page hierarchy.
	 */
	void selectCurrentPageAgain() {
		if (lastSuccessfulNode == null)
			return;
		getTreeViewer().setSelection(
				new StructuredSelection(lastSuccessfulNode));
		currentPage.setVisible(true);
	}