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 control[0];
	}
	/*
	 * (non-Javadoc)
	 * 
	 * @see org.eclipse.jface.dialogs.Dialog#createDialogArea(org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Composite)
	 */
	protected Control createDialogArea(Composite parent) {
		final Composite composite = (Composite) super.createDialogArea(parent);
		((GridLayout) composite.getLayout()).numColumns = 3;
		final Control treeControl = createTreeAreaContents(composite);
		final Sash sash = new Sash(composite, SWT.VERTICAL);
		sash.setLayoutData(new GridData(GridData.FILL_VERTICAL));
		
		
		sash.addListener(SWT.Selection, new Listener() {
			/*
			 * (non-Javadoc)
			 * 
			 * @see org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Listener#handleEvent(org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Event)
			 */
			public void handleEvent(Event event) {
				if (event.detail == SWT.DRAG)
					return;
				int shift = event.x - sash.getBounds().x;
				GridData data = (GridData) treeControl.getLayoutData();
				int newWidthHint = data.widthHint + shift;
				if (newWidthHint < 20)
					return;
				Point computedSize = getShell().computeSize(SWT.DEFAULT,