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
private IPreferencePage currentPage;
	private DialogMessageArea messageArea;
	/**
	 * Indicates whether help is available; <code>false</code> by default.'
	 * 
	 * @see #setHelpAvailable
	 */
	private boolean isHelpAvailable = false;
	private Point lastShellSize;
	private IPreferenceNode lastSuccessfulNode;
	/**
	 * The minimum page size; 400 by 400 by default.
	 * 
	 * @see #setMinimumPageSize(Point)
	 */
	private Point minimumPageSize = new Point(400, 400);
	/**
	 * The OK button.
	 */
	private Button okButton;
	/**
	 * The Composite in which a page is shown.
	 */
	private Composite pageContainer;
	/**
	 * The preference manager.
	 */
	private PreferenceManager preferenceManager;
	/**
	 * Flag for the presence of the error message.