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
}
		return super.close();
	}
	/*
	 * (non-Javadoc)
	 * 
	 * @see org.eclipse.jface.window.Window#configureShell(org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Shell)
	 */
	protected void configureShell(Shell newShell) {
		super.configureShell(newShell);
		newShell.setText(JFaceResources.getString("PreferenceDialog.title")); 
		newShell.addShellListener(new ShellAdapter() {
			public void shellActivated(ShellEvent e) {
				if (lastShellSize == null)
					lastShellSize = getShell().getSize();
			}
		});
	}
	/*
	 * (non-Javadoc)
	 * 
	 * @see org.eclipse.jface.window.Window#constrainShellSize()
	 */
	protected void constrainShellSize() {
		super.constrainShellSize();
		
		if (lastShellSize == null)
			lastShellSize = getShell().getSize();
	}
	/*