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
*            the preference store
	 * @see #getPreferenceStore
	 */
	public void setPreferenceStore(IPreferenceStore store) {
		Assert.isNotNull(store);
		preferenceStore = store;
	}
	/**
	 * Save the currently selected node.
	 */
	private void setSelectedNode() {
		String storeValue = null;
		IStructuredSelection selection = (IStructuredSelection) getTreeViewer()
				.getSelection();
		if (selection.size() == 1) {
			IPreferenceNode node = (IPreferenceNode) selection
					.getFirstElement();
			storeValue = node.getId();
		}
		setSelectedNodePreference(storeValue);
	}
	/**
	 * Get the name of the selected item preference
	 * 
	 * @param pageId
	 *            The indentifer for the page
	 */
	protected void setSelectedNodePreference(String pageId) {
		lastPreferenceId = pageId;
	}