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
SWT.DEFAULT);
				Point currentSize = getShell().getSize();
				
				
				boolean customSize = !computedSize.equals(currentSize);
				data.widthHint = newWidthHint;
				setLastTreeWidth(newWidthHint);
				composite.layout(true);
				
				computedSize = getShell().computeSize(SWT.DEFAULT, SWT.DEFAULT);
				
				
				if (customSize)
					computedSize.x = Math.max(computedSize.x, currentSize.x);
				computedSize.y = Math.max(computedSize.y, currentSize.y);
				if (computedSize.equals(currentSize))
					return;
				setShellSize(computedSize.x, computedSize.y);
				lastShellSize = getShell().getSize();
			}
		});
		Composite pageAreaComposite = new Composite(composite, SWT.NONE);
		pageAreaComposite.setLayoutData(new GridData(GridData.FILL_BOTH));
		GridLayout layout = new GridLayout(1, true);
		layout.marginHeight = 0;
		layout.marginWidth = 10;
		pageAreaComposite.setLayout(layout);
		
		Composite titleComposite = new Composite(pageAreaComposite, SWT.NONE);
		layout = new GridLayout();