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
* (non-Javadoc)
	 * 
	 * @see org.eclipse.jface.dialogs.Dialog#createButtonsForButtonBar(org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Composite)
	 */
	protected void createButtonsForButtonBar(Composite parent) {
		
		okButton = createButton(parent, IDialogConstants.OK_ID,
				IDialogConstants.OK_LABEL, true);
		getShell().setDefaultButton(okButton);
		createButton(parent, IDialogConstants.CANCEL_ID,
				IDialogConstants.CANCEL_LABEL, false);
		if (isHelpAvailable) {
			createButton(parent, IDialogConstants.HELP_ID,
					IDialogConstants.HELP_LABEL, false);
		}
	}
	/*
	 * (non-Javadoc)
	 * 
	 * @see org.eclipse.jface.window.Window#createContents(org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Composite)
	 */
	protected Control createContents(final Composite parent) {
		final Control[] control = new Control[1];
		BusyIndicator.showWhile(getShell().getDisplay(), new Runnable() {
			public void run() {
				control[0] = PreferenceDialog.super.createContents(parent);
				
				selectSavedItem();
			}
		});